Donald Trump To Announce Mike Pence As Vice-Presidential Running Mate (theguardian.com)

Donald Trump has selected Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate. A senior GOP official, cited by many media outlets today (including the WSJ), confirmed the news, adding that the announcement will be made Friday. The Guardian reports: Pence brings several qualities to the Trump campaign that Republicans have found lacking, not least of which experience in government. The 57-year-old spent 12 years in Congress, including two years in a leadership role with the House Republican Conference. He was elected governor of Indiana in 2012, and gained a degree of national notoriety that's to a controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which he signed into law and then wanted revised, after many argued it would allow discrimination against LGBT people. A Trump-Pence ticket could send a message to Republican dissenters who feel they cannot support a candidate who has proven inconsistent on guns, abortion, LGBT rights and other social conservative issues. Just before the Indiana primary election, the staunchly conservative governor endorsed Ted Cruz, Trump's leading opponent and a far-right senator from Texas.An anonymous reader shared a BuzzFeed article on Pence today. The article digs into some of the opinion pieces Pence has penned over the years. In one such article, Pence wrote that "smoking doesn't kill." "Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill," he wrote. In another piece, he argues that Carbon Dioxide "can't be the cause of increased global temperatures" because it is "a naturally occurring phenomenon in nature..." not an unnatural one.

Comments

Meh

[tripleevenfall]

Reaction from conservatives and Republicans on this will be little to zero excitement.

Pence shriveled up in the face of the challenges in his state when the religious freedom act came under assault, and he really bears no marks of being a person who could be sold as a moderating influence to Trump.

However, I suspect that Trump has left himself with few friends and fewer qualified choices, so this is what the Trumpsters get. Mike the Generic Guy.

Re:Meh

[Grishnakh]

Trump wasn't elected by "fascists", for the most part. He was elected by white, working class people who finally woke up and realized that the mainstream Republican policies weren't working for them, and the mainstream GOP politicians were just lying to them and pandering to them.

Unfortunately, instead of just abandoning the GOP altogether, they picked the one guy in the GOP (who conveniently joined the GOP just before the election cycle) who told them what they wanted to hear, and really isn't a very good candidate.

But they were right to be angry at the mainstream GOP.

Unfortunately, despite all the (rightful) populist anger, we're going to wind up with two absolutely terrible candidates running in November, one who's part of the party that always pushes Big Business but voices support for populist policies (that probably won't help, like building a wall), and another who's part of the party that claims to be for the common main but is clearly sold out to Wall Street and private prisons.

Nice previously researched spin in the "article"

[CajunArson]

Here's what Mike Pence said word for word in his so-called "denialist" and "anti-science" article:

This is not to say that smoking is good for you.... news flash: smoking is not good for you. If you are reading this article through the blue haze of cigarette smoke you should quit. The relevant question is, what is more harmful to the nation, second hand smoke or back handed big government disguised in do-gooder healthcare rhetoric.

And he was right.

Good pick.

[Gravis Zero]

Pence is just as nuts as Trump which is good... for Trump. If Trump picked a good VP and somehow got elected, someone might try to assassinate him just to get the VP in place. Way to double down on the insanity! ;)

Trump will succeed because...

[GrBear]

In my opinion, Trump will succeed not because of his political prowess, but because of who he resonates with.

People are tired of the elite ruling, making decisions based on cronyism and who lines their pockets. Trump isn't afraid to call them out.

The elite don't seem to understand that the non-elite vastly outnumber them, and are tired of their voices no being heard or making a difference.

Will Trump being president be a disaster, probably.. but at least it would shake things up and make the elite take notice how easily they can be replaced by the unsatisfied masses when the option presents itself.

Re:Trump will succeed because...

[beelsebob]

People are tired of the elite ruling, making decisions based on cronyism and who lines their pockets. Trump isn't afraid to call them out.

Right... because Trump isn't a multi-billionare elite looking to do nothing but line his own pockets...

Re:Trump will succeed because...

[ScentCone]

How does that not make him a part of the ruling class?

Because all the actual, real members of the ruling class hate him. There are plenty of people as rich or wildly richer than Trump. Unlike many of them, he hasn't been hip-deep in real politics all his adult life. He's a fairly successful person with an outlook on life that is shared by millions of people, and an awareness (say, halfway through his life) that his own success could be bolstered by adding "entertainer" to his box of tricks. But if he's "ruling class," then so is Michael Jordan, Steven Spielberg, Taylor Swift, Richard Branson, or JK Rowling. "Running in the same circles" isn't even vaguely like being, say, a Clinton.