Post-Debate, Mike Pence Became the De Facto Leader of the Conservative Movement

Last night’s vice presidential debate was almost unwatchable at times as Indiana Governor Mike Pence brilliantly took on his two debate opponents; Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and debate “moderator” Elaine Quijano of CBS News. 

While Kaine’s smirking and some 57 interruptions of Governor Pence may have gone over well with core Hillary supporters it was universally acknowledged by outside observers that Pence came across as the adult in the room to the point that even one of Kaine’s former staffers panned his performance.

Ex-Tim Kaine staffer Christian Rickers told Breitbart News exclusively that former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence easily won Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.

“Kaine should have been himself,” Rickers told Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle. “I don’t know what the Clintons have done to him. I thought Pence won the debate. It made me very sad,” Rickers told Breitbart News. “I’ve never seen him like that. It’s not the Tim Kaine I know. I can’t believe it. Is that what we have been reduced to? Win at all cost and bring out the hatchet?”

However, more important than Gov. Pence’s calm and likeable demeanor during the debate, were his smooth and comfortable answers framing Trump’s positions in movement conservative terms—especially on economic issues.

“The truth of the matter is the policies of this administration which Hillary Clinton and Senator Kaine want to continue have run this economy into the ditch,” Pence said during the vice presidential debate in Virginia. “We’re in the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression. There are millions more people living in poverty today than the day that Barack Obama, with Hillary Clinton at his side, stepped into the Oval Office.

“I appreciate that ‘you’re hired, you’re fired’ thing, senator, you used that a whole lot and I think your running mate used a lot of pre-done lines,” Pence said. “What you all just heard out there is more taxes, $2 trillion in more spending, more deficits, more debt, more government, and if you think that’s all working then you look at the other side of the table.”

Pence, of course, could have offered details on the decline in household wealth, the rise in the number of Americans who have dropped out of the labor force, and the staggering national debt that produced virtually nothing, jobs-wise, for $10 trillion in deficit spending had the “moderator” restrained Kaine’s interruptions just a little bit.

Pence understood that the audience was on the other side of the TV screen, not on the TV set at Virginia’s Longwood University.

Gov. Pence repeatedly turned directly to the camera to offer his answer and bring his calm and reassuring tone directly into the living rooms of the millions of Americans watching the debate.

In a tweet at the conclusion of the debate CNN called the debate a “narrow” win for Pence.

Yet, even as CNN tried to frame the debate as a “narrow” win for Pence their own flash poll showed just the opposite.  The CNN/ORC instant poll showed Mike Pence with a solid six-point win over Tim Kaine 48 percent to 42 percent.

However, unlike CNN, POLITICO shed its Clinton partisanship for the evening and proclaimed, “Mike Pence didn’t just defeat Tim Kaine in their only debate—he also outshined Donald Trump.”

A majority of the battleground-state insiders who comprise The POLITICO Caucus gave Pence the edge over Kaine: 60 percent of all of POLITICO’s “insiders,” including 96 percent of Republicans and 21 percent of Democrats gave the debate to Pence.

“Mike Pence projects calm reassurance and strength and an ability to articulate a vision and policies Americans support. For the first time in months, we heard a serious case for conservative principles,” an Ohio Republican “insider” told POLITICO.

“Pence was the anti-Trump,” a Nevada Republican added. “He was prepared, smart, composed and he showed respectful competence and leadership.”

“Pence was calm, reasoned, on message and polite,” a Michigan Republican said. “Kaine was arrogant, rude and defensive.”

“Mike Pence was unflappable, staying relentlessly on mission to critique Hillary Clinton, in spite of Tim Kaine’s constant and rude interruptions,” a New Hampshire Republican added.

Mike Pence had one job going into last night’s debate and that was to defend his running mate and his positions, but in doing that job effectively, he accomplished another much more important job; he confirmed his position as de facto leader of the conservative movement. {eoa}

George Rasley is editor of ConservativeHQ, a member of American MENSA and a veteran of over 300 political campaigns, including every Republican presidential campaign from 1976 to 2008. He served as lead advance representative for Governor Sarah Palin in 2008 and has served as a staff member, consultant or advance representative for some of America’s most recognized conservative Republican political figures, including President Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. He served in policy and communications positions on the House and Senate staff, and during the George H.W. Bush administration he served on the White House staff of Vice President Dan Quayle.

This article was first published at conservativehq.com. Used with permission.