You have a high opinion of Pence.
I see him as an inauthentic, dull speaker, of limited intelligence, and a religious zealot. His appeal is mostly to the extreme religious folks. To improve his rankings and appeal , all he has to do is say white folks are the bomb a la Steve King.
Note that all Republicans who are running and will run will have to appeal to the bigotry of the Republican base to overcome Trump's obvious bigotry. It is the sole reason Trump has control of THE BASE. Republicans know it but fear the blowback from independents (your fav).
What a world, where Republicans are forced to be dishonest because THE BASE will disown them. Kewl.
One only has to look at what was going on behind the scenes at FOX to understand the Republicans' fear. They were well aware that they were spreading blatantly false nutjob voting conspiracy gibberish, but they were afraid of losing "market share" to nuttier outlets like NutsMax and OneAssholeNews. If they couldn't lie to their consumers, no one would watch them.
The same dynamic infests the GOP. They can no longer field a relatively rational candidate like Romney or McCain (even though both were abysmal in my eyes) because they are afraid of losing the "deplorables". They've been running on lies, dystopian visions, and corruption for so long, they don't recognize reason any more.
Consider, Trump and DeSantis are the top candidates right now. Liz Cheney, about as conservative as anyone in the party, can't get elected as a Republican. Nikki Haley is considered "a leader" like McCarthy because they are willing to prostitute themselves to the base to get elected. It is ridiculous.
