Some presidential candidates, when searching for the perfect vice president, look for someone who shores up their support in a specific state or region. Others pick a veep who will help balance out the ticket by appealing to a different wing of the party.
Donald Trump has another purpose for Mike Pence: straight man.
As Trump goes around the country, saying Russia should hack our election, or Hillary should be assassinated, or the president is secretly in league with terrorists, it’s only a matter of time before the Republican nominee cackles insanely and grabs his phone to tweet out a gotcha! And when that happens, Mike Pence has to come along with a straight face and deliver the final, eye-rolling bit of ridiculousness.
Gov. Mike Pence on Thursday blamed the media for making an issue out of Donald Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama “founded ISIS,” saying they were nitpicking at Trump's wording while missing the larger truth of Trump's remarks.
The larger truths being that Trump repeatedly said that he meant the “founder of ISIS” comment both “literally” and “absolutely.”
The media might also be making the mistake of taking Mike Pence seriously. But give it just a few more weeks. Then no one will make that mistake again.
Pence continued: "When President Obama became president, it’s important to remember, that Iraq was essentially stable and it was Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that withdrew American forces precipitously without what’s called a status of forces agreement, and they created the very vacuum in which ISIS was able to be spawned and conjured up as it were, compromising large areas of Iraq and bringing violence to that part of the world, to our allies in Europe and inspiring violence here at home.”
Let’s peer through the mists of time to look back to December 2008, exactly one month before Barack Obama became president.
It was the end of the Iraqi mission for most of the allies who came into Iraq to help us. South Korean forces went home that month. So did Czech troops. So did troops from Ukraine (Dear Mr. Trump: Ukrainian forces came to Iraq to help us before Putin invaded their country, you dictator-loving SOB). Four other nations also ended their missions to Iraq that month.
And, oh yeah, President George W. Bush traveled to Iraq, met with the prime minister, and signed the security pact that included a binding status of forces agreement. That status of forces agreement was the one that Obama followed when he took office. He followed the treaty that had already been negotiated and signed by the previous president. Because not doing what you said you would do is generally regarded as a bad thing.
Though that’s an alien concept to Donald Trump.
December 2008 is also when President Bush got hit by a shoe. Possibly because the thrower was upset by the multiple instances of terrorism that had rocked the nation for months, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. Possibly because he was concerned about the cities and towns in the north of the country that were already outside the control of government forces and occupied by what was then called al-Qaida in Iraq. Possibly because he was just pissed.
Because Iraq was so stable.