Mike Pence just surrendered

At this point Mike Pence is hated by all of the left, most of the center, and much of the right. So why did he bother running for President? The same reason any washed up political figure does anything: money. He was hoping to limp along in the race all the way to Iowa, use his media coverage leading up to the Iowa caucus to promote his next book, make a million bucks, and disappear into obscurity.

The trouble for Pence is that while you only really need to poll at perhaps 5% to keep limping along like that, Pence couldn’t even pull that off. His numbers were so ugly that he couldn’t even bring in the trickle of money required to keep limping along. Worse, it appeared he wasn’t even going to qualify for the next Republican primary debate. How embarrassing is that? No one participating in these debates is in contention. Yet Pence’s numbers are so much worse than theirs, he was in danger of not making the stage.

So now Mike Pence is doing what all failed candidates do when they’re forced to drop out but want to pretend they’re not dropping out: he’s suspending his campaign. Has anyone ever suspended their campaign and then actually made a comeback? Of course not. But keep in mind that with Donald Trump heading for criminal trial and prison, we could end up seeing a bizarre Republican National Convention full of floor fights.

So maybe Pence envisions himself getting back into the race later, after Trump is hauled away. He still won’t have any support at that point, but a man can dream, right? The kicker is that while Pence’s political relevance is now over (it was over awhile ago), he is about to become very relevant in one specific way. He’ll be forced to testify during Trump’s criminal trial in March. Pence may finally become relevant right around the time of the Iowa caucus – just not in the way that he had been hoping.

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