Nearly four years ago, I reviewed a biography of Mike Pence. Not a fan of the pol, as you might imagine, but I warned that he wasn’t “going away anytime soon.”
POLITICO reports that the former veep is “in second-place in Iowa with 19 percent, trailing only Trump.” Thought my review would be a good pick for Throwback Wednesday this week. Enjoy!
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In Piety and Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House (Dey Street Books; 371 pages; $26.99), Tom LoBianco details “the chameleon properties, stretched over decades” that enabled the Indianan to become “the unlikely vice president to Donald J. Trump.”
While flawed, often maddeningly, it’s a biography worth reading. Impeachment and removal from office isn’t likely, but The Donald’s age, combined with his lack of interest in nutrition and exercise, doesn’t put an accidental Pence presidency wildly outside the realm of possibility. And regardless of the results of next year’s Electoral College smackdown, the nation’s 48th second-in-command to the chief executive will be a political force well into the next decade. Pence’s speech coach from high school told LoBianco that “he talked to his classmates about one day being president.” Loathe him or love him, Mike Pence isn’t going away anytime soon.
Born into a comfortable family in Columbus, religion and politics dominated Pence’s early life. A degree from Hanover College, where he was heavily involved in the campus’s Christian community, led to a sheepskin from Indiana University’s law school. (His initial LSATs were weak, necessitating a second try.)
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