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Should Trump dump Pence?
By Kent R. Kroeger (March 14, 2020)
The importance of the vice presidential nominee has never been as great as it will be in the 2020 presidential election. The likely Democratic Party nominee — Joe Biden — is 77 years old and the probability his VP pick could be president before the next presidential election is (to put it gently) non-zero.
As for the incumbent, Donald Trump, the current consensus is that Vice President Mike Pence will be his running mate again in 2020. But if there is a time when an incumbent president should consider changing vice presidents, this is that time.
Pence offers no home state advantage. Trump would win Indiana if his running mate was a ham sandwich. Pence’s executive experience as a former Indiana governor is no longer necessary to compensate for Trump’s inexperience in a high-elected office. And don’t try to convince me that Pence is a charismatic campaigner who generates excitement within the Republican electoral base — he is duller than a wet paper towel.
But the real reason Trump should dump Pence has more to do with Trump’s electoral vulnerability than anything wrong with Pence. First, the coronavirus pandemic is starting to wear down Trump’s job approval — it now stands at 44.6 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling average, down in just a few weeks from 46 percent (the minimum level…
