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When Donald Trump selected him as his running mate in July 2016, Mike Pence was seen largely as a way to ensure that social conservatives and evangelicals skeptical of Trump would turn out to vote for him. Like most vice presidential picks, Pence was meant to serve a specific but limited purpose. A red-state governor with strong ties to the most conservative elements of the Republican Party, and more than a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives, Pence could shore up Trumps lack of experience, and at least on paper, he looked like the perfect political counterweight to a flamethrowing outsider.

A little more than a year later, amid the backbiting, tumult, and controversy that have defined Trumps presidency, Pence remains exactly what he was brought in to bea rare pillar of calm, polished professionalism. Hes avoided West Wing knife fights, managing not to make enemies in a White House riven by rival factions and power struggles. Pence has also tactfully steered clear of making any significant slights or public contradictions of the president and wisely avoided whats perhaps the gravest sin in Trump Worldovershadowing the boss.

And yet a quiet tension looms over his role. As questions swirl about Trumps future and what may come after, attention has returned to Pence and his potential ambitions. News that he started his own leadership PAC in May raised eyebrows about whether Pence, 58, was actively preparing for life post-Trump or even considering a run in 2020 himself, something he vehemently denies but that Democrats are taking seriously. Still, as he becomes a stabilizing force inside an erratic White Houseif only by defaultthe question arises: Can he use that role to effect change inside it?

Evidence suggests Trump has come to realize Pences value as an asset to be deployed. Whether he sees him as someone worth listening to is another matter. Pence opened for Trump at an Aug. 22 rally in Phoenix, asserting the bosss commitment to racial harmony. Trump proceeded to trample that message in his ensuing speech. The two men do talk multiple times a day and have a scheduled lunch every week. Trumps chief of staff, U.S. Marine Corps General John Kelly, has also struck up a close relationship with Pence and talks with the vice presidents chief of staff, Nick Ayers, each morning and throughout the day.

Among senior officials in the West Wing, no one has the legislative and executive expertise of Pence, who spent four years as governor of Indiana after his 12 years in Congress. His staff is versed in state and national politics and has deep ties to Congress and the Republican Party. After the departure of Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, both of whom spent years working for the Republican National Committee, those ties are crucial to a West Wing devoid of many Republican stalwarts.

Pence has earned a broad portfolio of domestic and foreign policy issues to oversee, including a big role in formulating the strategy for Afghanistan. This summer, hes led meetings with military and national security advisers, collecting and analyzing options, according to a person familiar with the planning process. In a two-hour meeting at Camp David on Aug. 18, rather than advocate for a particular position, Pence played the intermediary, making sure Trump got a complete picture of the scenarios, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Before the presidents Aug. 21 address on the U.S.s future involvement in Afghanistan, it was Pencenot Trumpwho talked to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the person says.

Pence has taken on a weighty foreign policy role, traveling to a dozen countries, where hes smoothed the rough edges of Trumps nationalist trade talk and volatile foreign policy declarations. During recent stops in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Panama, he had to calm leaders over Trumps remarks that a military option was on the table for Venezuela and to reassure countries that the U.S. was still an eager trading partner. As tensions escalated with North Korea, it was Pence, clad in a leather bomber jacket, who scowled across the 38th parallel in April.

Perhaps Pences biggest asset is his relationship with congressional Republicans. He has lunch with GOP senators almost every Tuesday when Congress is in session, something his predecessors rarely kept up. Hes also made the rare move of opening an office on the House side of the Hill and spends much of his time at the U.S. Capitol. During the tensest moments of the health-care debate, some House aides said they preferred dealing with Pence and his staff, ignoring calls from Priebus, says a senior aide to Republican leadership. Pence is close with House Speaker Paul Ryan and often informs him on White House policy decisions. It helps that Trumps legislative affairs director, Marc Short, is a former Pence operative.

No one is more influential in the Capitol than Mike Pence, says North Carolina Representative Mark Walker, chairman of the conservative 170-member Republican Study Committee. Pence is one of the few people who can bridge the different political groups in the House. The vice president was crucial in getting the Obamacare repeal through the House, though when it came to getting it through the Senate, he was less effective. His last-minute entreaties to Arizona Republican Senator John McCain failed.

As relations between Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have soured, particularly with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Pence will likely have to play the role of mediator. McConnell credits Pence for his active role on the Hill and calls him an indispensable player for the White House. His influence also gives him a greater ability to push his own agenda of entitlement cuts and ending funding for Planned Parenthood. Neil Bradley, a former top GOP House staffer and advocate at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says Pence will be absolutely critical to getting a tax bill passed this fall.

Pence is also expected to be a surrogate for Trump in the 2018 midterm elections, particularly in conservative areas of the country where his endorsement may carry more weight than Trumps. With the West Wing a revolving door of staffers quitting or being dismissed, Pence has job security. As vice president, hes the one White House official whom Trump cant fire.

BOTTOM LINE - Pence has avoided the political backstabbing in the West Wing and does parts of the job Trump wont. Can he help get the president back on track?

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Mike Pence Is More Important Than Ever for Trump - Bloomberg

Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a joint press conference with Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia. Fernando Vergara / AP

Three defense officials initially told NBC News that the service members were in Colombia in connection with Pence's trip to Latin America earlier this month, but a defense official later told NBC News the incident occurred in Panama.

A White House official told NBC News that Pence had not left the U.S. when the incident occurred. His staff became aware of the problem when they saw security camera video of the members of the detail bringing the women into the secure area, the officials said.

The service members who were senior members of the services, according to one of the officials were brought back to the United States and removed from the White House detail once the allegations surfaced.

"We are aware of the incident and it is currently under investigation," Air Force spokesman Col. Patrick S. Ryder. "We can confirm that the individuals in question have been reassigned back to the Army and Air Force."

There is no indication at this point that the women who were brought to the hotel were prostitutes, officials said.

In 2012, eight Secret Service agents doing advance work for a presidential trip to Colombia lost their jobs after allegations that some

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Military Members on Pence Detail Reassigned for Bringing Women to Hotel - NBCNews.com

President Trumps strategy for South Asia will undo the failed policies of the past and put the safety and security of the American people first.

Mike Pence: Donald Trumps new American strategy for Afghanistan will undo past failures Editorial USA Today August 21, 2017

President Trump has no higher priority than the safety and security of the American people. Since the very first day of our administration, he has taken decisive action to protect our citizens, our country and our very way of life and on Monday, President Trump announced a new strategy for addressing threats from Afghanistan and South Asia that will enhance the security of our homeland and protect our people from those who would do us harm.

The president has authorized our armed forces to directly target the terrorists and militant networks that sow violence and chaos throughout Afghanistan, who put our soldiers at risk and destabilize the region. He has lifted the restrictions that prevented our commanders in the field from fully using their judgment and expertise to carry out their critical missions.

Achieving this goal requires that both the Afghan authorities and the Taliban demonstrate political will to participate in a meaningful dialogue.

To be clear: Americas goal in Afghanistan is not to impose democracy or a strong central government that runs counter to Afghanistans tradition of local autonomy. Nonetheless, we insist that the Afghan government reduce corruption, implement reforms, and continue to strengthen its security forces, which have repeatedly proved their courage and resolve on the field of battle.

The previous administration alerted our enemies ahead of time by announcing troop numbers and timelines, something President Trump has wisely refused to do.

A stable Afghanistan will mean a safer America. To achieve this goal, President Trumps new strategy for South Asia also calls for a shift in Americas policy towards Pakistan, a place he refuses to ignore.

Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much more to lose by supporting terrorists. The president has put them on notice.

Finally, the president's strategy for South Asia involves a stronger strategic partnership with India the worlds largest democracy and a key security and economic partner.

President Trumps strategy for South Asia will undo the failed policies of the past and put the safety and security of the American people first.

Read the full editorial here.

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VPOTUS Mike Pence Editorial: Donald Trump's New American Strategy for Afghanistan Will Undo Past Failures - Whitehouse.gov (press release)

Take Tuesday night in Arizona when he told a crowd in Phoenix this: "I was a good student. I always hear about the elite. You know, the elite. They're elite? I went to better schools than they did. I was a better student than they were."

For the public, Trump's intelligence is a bit more of an open question -- and becoming more open with each passing day in the White House.

Which is interesting. But not nearly as interesting as how rapidly the number of people who think Trump is smart has dropped since November 2016. In a November 22 Quinnipiac poll -- two weeks to the day after the election -- 74% said Trump was "intelligent" while just 21% said he was not.

That number has steadily declined over Trump's first 7 months in office. By March it had dipped into the high 50s and its continued to fall steadily.

Why does it matter?

It might not!

After all, being "intelligent" is not a prerequisite of being President. And intelligence -- who has it and who doesn't -- is a very, very subjective measure. (Do street smarts count as being "intelligent"? Or is it a pure IQ measure? Something in between? Neither?)

And, some of the question about how smart Trump winds up being a proxy for whether or not you like him. Nine in 10 Republicans say Trump is intelligent while just 25% of Democrats say the same. Fifty-five percent of independents say Trump is intelligent.

Still, the numbers -- and the rapid drop in them -- are interesting and telling. Take, for example, the fact that 42% of Democrats said Trump was intelligent in January and only 25% say that now. Or that 70% of independents called Trump "intelligent" in January, but only 55% say so now.

It's impossible to offer a foolproof conclusion that explains those dips.

But, it is absolutely true that in the wake of the 2016 election that even those who disliked Trump also viewed him as a master reader and manipulator of the American public. The default assumption was that he had been -- and would continue to be -- playing three-dimensional chess, and that Democrats would need to up their game to match him,.

Again, being the smartest person in the country -- whether or not Trump is -- isn't how you get elected president. (Sorry, Stephen Hawking!)

But that doesn't make figuring out why Trump's numbers on the "intelligence" question any less fascinating.

See the rest here:
Is Donald Trump smart? - CNN International

In doing so, we have to examine the history of Alabama and see how white supremacy tracks across time and culminates with Trump.

The original capital of the Confederacy was in Montgomery, Ala. Of course, the South lost and Reconstruction commenced. But Alabama was divided between the anti-secession populists of the north and the counties in the south, as the Journal of Negro History pointed out in a 1949 article titled Populism and Disfranchisement in Alabama. After two elections for governors in which the populists did surprisingly well, coming within striking distance of winning, the flaming racist Democrats (that was the party of racists then) called a constitutional convention in 1901 with the express purpose of using the threat of the black vote Negro domination was a phrase used to make sure that the populists never had a chance again.

This to me was the most striking passage from the article:

The Democratic State Executive Committee met in Montgomery on April 19 for the purpose of getting reports from the field and to brief candidates for delegates to the proposed convention. Emmet ONeal, later to become governor of the state, stated that the paramount purpose of the constitutional convention is to lay deep and strong and permanent in the fundamental law of the State the foundation of white supremacy forever in Alabama, and that we ought to go before the people on that issue and not suggest other questions on which we differ. Candidate Thomas J. Long, from Walker County, reminded his fellow candidates that the way to win the fight is to go to the mountain counties and talk white supremacy . I dont believe it is good policy to go up in the hills and tell them that Booker Washington or Councill or anybody else is allowed to vote because they are educated. The minute you do that every white man who is not educated is disfranchised on the same proposition.

Does this sound familiar? Its the racial anxiety, divide-and-conquer tactics perpetually used on poor whites to persuade them to vote against their economic interests and for some mythological racial interest: You may be poor, but at least youre not black. You should have advantage even over people more qualified than you. The lines are legion.

Almost 60 years after this constitutional convention, Alabama became ground zero for the civil rights movement. It is where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. It is the place where the soil was soaked on Bloody Sunday. It is where the four little girls were killed in the church bombing. It is where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter From Birmingham Jail. It was the home of Bull Connor.

Alabama was the battlefield on which the war over race was fought, and to a disturbing degree, that remains the case.

After Congress finally passed a bill making Kings birthday a federal holiday in 1983, Alabama was one of three states to take the outrageous step of combining King Day with Robert E. Lee Day. Thats right: Alabama celebrates these two divergent historical figures on the same day.

The landmark 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision in which the Supreme Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act, passed to combat racial discrimination at the polls, was about Alabama.

Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts claimed that our country has changed, but in their dissenting opinion in the case, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan pointed to recordings from an F.B.I. investigation that captured conversations between members of the state legislature and their political allies. They continued: Members of the state Senate derisively refer to African-Americans as Aborigines and talk openly of their aim to quash a particular gambling-related referendum because the referendum, if placed on the ballot, might increase African-American voter turnout.

In 2014, a voter ID law passed in 2011 went into effect in Alabama. The law required student, tribal or state-issued IDs including Alabama drivers licenses or nondriver ID cards issued by the Alabama Department of Motor Vehicles in order to vote.

The very next year, Alabama moved to close 31 drivers license offices, disproportionately in black areas. As The Birmingham News/AL.com columnist John Archibald pointed out at the time:

Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their drivers license office closed. Every one.

Furthermore, CNNs KFile reported this week that former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the leading candidate to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, is a birther who has continuously questioned President Obamas citizenship, including doing so three months after then-Republican nominee Donald Trump conceded that Obama was born in the U.S. after pushing the racially charged birther conspiracy for years.

(Interestingly, Moore was not the candidate Trump supported in the primaries to fill the seat.)

Feelings about Obamas birth and religion are important because as Philip Klinkner, a Hamilton College professor, wrote in Vox before the election:

You can ask just one simple question to find out whether someone likes Donald Trump more than Hillary Clinton: Is Barack Obama a Muslim? If they are white and the answer is yes, 89 percent of the time that person will have a higher opinion of Trump than Clinton.

As AL.com reported roughly a month before the election:

Trump, according to the odds on ESPN-owned FiveThirtyEight.com, is polling strongest in Alabama compared to any other state in the U.S. The websites latest forecasts, updated on Monday, place Trumps odds of winning Alabama at 99.5 percent, which is better than all other deep red states: Mississippi (94.3 percent), Oklahoma (99.2 percent), Idaho (98.8 percent), Arkansas (97.9 percent) and West Virginia (98.9 percent).

Indeed, Trump did exceedingly well in the state, with Alabama being one of the top 10 states where he won by the biggest margins. After the election, AL.com called Trump the king of Alabama and pointed out:

The Republican president-elect, according to uncertified final numbers, defeated Democrat challenger Hillary Clinton by a 28.3 percent differential, the largest margin of victory in a presidential race held within the state since 1972.

The site added, Trumps overall vote totals in Alabama also set an all-time high.

Just this year, after New Orleans took down some Confederate monuments, Alabama passed a law prohibiting the removal of monuments in the state.

If you want to know why Trump resonates with his base, look no farther than Alabama. When you want to know to whom Trump is appealing with his unhinged racial rants, look no farther than Alabama.

As goes Alabama, so goes Trumps America.

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Donald Trump, 'King of Alabama'? - New York Times