Pence’s campaign is cash-starved, going nowhere, and its flickering star appears utterly unaware of the fact.
Like the dying horse that screams while trampling its entrails in the mud in the fourth chapter of Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Mike Pence’s primary campaign is certifiably dead but too uncharitable to his peers to disappear quietly into those cornfields Hoosiers call home. The financial figures are staggering in their Lilliputian aspect: The Pence campaign reported $1.2 million in cash while taking on more than $600,000 in debt, according to FEC filings.
For reference, Pence’s competitors — Trump ($37.5 million on hand), DeSantis ($12.3 million), and Haley ($11.6 million) — beggar Pence’s campaign. Even spoiler candidate Chris Christie has managed to accumulate some $3.9 million. While Pence may think of himself as David before Goliath, that shepherd-turned–king of Israel had to kill only one giant. It was the Israelites chasing down the fleeing Philistines who secured total victory — and Pence lacks a solitary Saul, Jesse, or sheep, let alone an army.
Further, Pence’s arch-Goliath, Donald Trump, hasn’t even attended the debates — and as of now, Indiana’s former governor hasn’t qualified for the third debate in which he could tell America about his foe’s absence from the same. It’s over, it’s done. No matter how many portraits of vice presidents-turned-presidents (Adams, Jefferson, and Coolidge) were affixed to his office walls during the Trump presidency, it’s over. Mike Pence will not be president, and the man he’s sworn to defeat will have his job made all the easier if a prudent withdrawal isn’t conducted soon. While the Right wars with itself, Biden quietly accumulates a lazy river of coin.
Bill Allison reports for Bloomberg:
Biden far out-raised the Republican field with a $71 million haul that includes money for his campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties, according to a statement.
That puts him in a particularly enviable position because he doesn’t have to spend money in a primary contest as GOP candidates must.
Biden has yet to file his disclosure with the FEC, which will include the names of the major donors to his campaign.
Mike Pence is always Mike Pence: firmly square and laudably consistent in his beliefs and principles. The party needs him to back one of his fellow candidates and cheer that individual on — he’s exceptional at doing that. Pence might not be David, but he could be the king’s armorer. There’s more heroism in producing the best results with what faculties one possesses than there is virtue in refusing to accept the role of supporting cast. Even the best of political leaders, whether kings or presidents, are only ever a necessary evil. America requires Pence’s moral clarity, not his candidacy.