{"id":7199,"date":"2019-06-05T22:23:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T02:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=7199"},"modified":"2019-06-05T22:23:11","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T02:23:11","slug":"can-pence-succeed-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Pence Succeed Trump?"},"content":{"rendered":"

No one can replace Donald Trump.\u00a0 He is unique.\u00a0 Of the seven billion plus humans inhabiting planet Earth there couldn\u2019t be another even close to his experiences, personality and skills.\u00a0 His quirks and his abilities are completely idiosyncratic.\u00a0 But he will also someday be term limited from serving as President of the United States.\u00a0 So, it is necessary to consider who could succeed Donald J. Trump as president.<\/p>\n

Mike Pence would be the conventional choice.\u00a0 The Vice President of a successful President should have a leg up.\u00a0 But Al Gore and Richard Nixon could disagree.\u00a0 Assuming President Trump continues to preside over a healthy economy chances are Mike Pence would have at least an even chance at winning.\u00a0 But is Mike Pence the man for the job?<\/p>\n

In terms of personality and background it would be hard to imagine a starker contrast than Trump and Pence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Name<\/td>\nDonald Trump<\/td>\nMike Pence<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Birthplace<\/td>\nNew York City, NY<\/td>\nColumbus, IN<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
family business<\/td>\nreal estate tycoon<\/td>\ngas station owner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
net worth<\/td>\nnorth of 1 billion dollars<\/td>\n$700,000 (mostly future pension benefits)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
liquid net worth<\/td>\nin the tens of millions<\/td>\n$15,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
religious convictions<\/td>\ndoubtful and conflicted<\/td>\ndevout<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
total number of wives<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
total lifetime number of porn star sex liaisons<\/td>\nimpossible to know but upper limit in triple figures<\/td>\nzero<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ability to withstand cross-examination by George Stephanopoulos<\/td>\ninfinite<\/td>\nzero<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you read Mike\u2019s bio, he checks all the boxes for a social conservative.\u00a0 He\u2019s pro-life, religious, family values, defense of marriage.\u00a0 He signed a bill as governor of Indiana to protect religious business owners from anti-discrimination law suits by homosexuals.\u00a0 But he immediately signed an amended version that gutted it when the Media, some big businesses and progressive advocacy groups coordinated their public attacks and threatened to boycott Indiana.\u00a0 And this latter incident is the troubling sticking point.\u00a0 Does Pence have the guts to stick to his guns and defy the progressive coalition?<\/p>\n

Now, there are some mitigating circumstances that are in his favor.\u00a0 Being the Governor of Indiana during the Obama presidency doesn\u2019t have the privileges that being President of the United States has.\u00a0 You can imagine the pressure being brought to bear by business leaders as negative publicity swirled around Indiana during the blitzkrieg that the Media created.\u00a0 And I\u2019m sure the US Attorney General\u2019s office was probably on the phone threatening him too.\u00a0 But however, you slice it, the optics were hardly Trumpian.<\/p>\n

It is fair to ask if Mike Pence may have learned something in the last three years of working with Donald Trump that improves his case.\u00a0 I would have to say yes.\u00a0 It seems highly unlikely that working in close proximity to President Trump hasn\u2019t provided very valuable object lessons in how to triage the almost unending series of crises, both actual and media-fabricated that have confronted the White House since January of 2017.\u00a0 By the end of President Trump\u2019s second term, I would imagine even Mike Pence will have added a certain understated swagger to his manner when dealing with the media and other pests.\u00a0 Undoubtedly, he\u2019ll never be able to launch a vindictive tweet at Chuck Schumer or bark out a fake news sound bite the way The Donald can but I don\u2019t doubt he\u2019ll manage to make his points without collapsing into spineless acquiescence to the likes of Stephanopoulos.<\/p>\n

Now this doesn\u2019t answer the other important question.\u00a0 Is Mike Pence the best choice for Trump\u2019s successor?\u00a0 Frankly, I doubt that.\u00a0 I think the best man for the job will be another independent businessman or possibly an extraordinary military leader (of course my favorite choice is always me but we\u2019ll leave that for another day).\u00a0 But for this essay let\u2019s restrict ourselves to whether Mike Pence could carry on the good work being done by President Trump.\u00a0 I will give Pence grudging approval and say that based on his strengths, weaknesses and opportunities to grow as Trump\u2019s right-hand man he probably could do it.<\/p>\n

One last safeguard for Pence is that if President Trump doesn\u2019t honestly think Pence is the right man to succeed him, he has two chances to correct the problem.\u00a0 He can choose a different running mate for 2020 and in 2024 if he suddenly objects to Pence, he can recommend someone else for the job.<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s say I give Mike Pence a wavering one thumb up.\u00a0 Here\u2019s hoping he comes into his own in the second term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one can replace Donald Trump.\u00a0 He is unique.\u00a0 Of the seven billion plus humans inhabiting planet Earth there couldn\u2019t be another even close to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[1169,372,16,1170],"class_list":["post-7199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-trump","tag-after-trump","tag-mike-pence","tag-trump","tag-what-do-we-do-after-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nCan Pence Succeed Trump? - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Pence Succeed Trump? - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No one can replace Donald Trump.\u00a0 He is unique.\u00a0 Of the seven billion plus humans inhabiting planet Earth there couldn\u2019t be another even close to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"photog\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\"},\"headline\":\"Can Pence Succeed Trump?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/\"},\"wordCount\":754,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"After Trump\",\"Mike Pence\",\"Trump\",\"What Do We Do After Trump?\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Current Events\",\"Trump\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/\",\"name\":\"Can Pence Succeed Trump? - Orion's Cold Fire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Can Pence Succeed Trump?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"description\":\"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"width\":4022,\"height\":1419,\"caption\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\",\"name\":\"photog\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"caption\":\"photog\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can Pence Succeed Trump? - Orion's Cold Fire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can Pence Succeed Trump? - Orion's Cold Fire","og_description":"No one can replace Donald Trump.\u00a0 He is unique.\u00a0 Of the seven billion plus humans inhabiting planet Earth there couldn\u2019t be another even close to","og_url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/","og_site_name":"Orion's Cold Fire","article_published_time":"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00","author":"photog","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_site":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"photog","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/"},"author":{"name":"photog","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3"},"headline":"Can Pence Succeed Trump?","datePublished":"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/"},"wordCount":754,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["After Trump","Mike Pence","Trump","What Do We Do After Trump?"],"articleSection":["Current Events","Trump"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/","name":"Can Pence Succeed Trump? - Orion's Cold Fire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-06T02:23:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/can-pence-succeed-trump\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Can Pence Succeed Trump?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","description":"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","width":4022,"height":1419,"caption":"Orion's Cold Fire"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3","name":"photog","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","caption":"photog"},"url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/"}]}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7200,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions\/7200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}