This is just humiliating for Mike Pence

It seems incredible, but former Vice President Mike Pence has STILL not qualified for the August Republican debate. And reportedly, he’s in a panic about it. To qualify, one needs 40,000 individual donors.

Christie has that. Haley has that. Some others have that. But apparently, Mike Pence does not. And yes, the man likely knows he cannot win and is looking for a book deal. But I’m sure he didn’t expect to be embarrassed like this.

Many pundits are talking about it, and a few warned that if Pence does not qualify for this debate, he might have no choice but to drop out of the race early. And the Pence campaign is now begging people for “even one dollar” in an attempt to make the stage.

I know why Mike Pence is doing so poorly. Failure has a certain smell to it, as does desperation. So too, does lying and holding things back. Pence is guilty of all of the above. Some others like Haley are also guilty of that. But Pence has the distinct honor of sounding painfully insincere.

And I think had he BEEN sincere, he’d have been a bit higher in the polls by now. In the beginning, I saw some people — not a whole lot but some — on social media, mulling over voting for Pence.

He was looked at as a decent and honest man by some Republicans. And so, yes, some people were gravitating toward him. That was before he opened his mouth and started to talk. The reality of the situation is nobody believes Pence is just fine with January 6. Few believe he places no blame on Trump.

Pence is pandering to an unheard-of extreme, and people are noticing it and calling it out. And any moderate Republicans who were thinking of voting for him? That went off the rails when he came out for a national abortion ban.

Pence is pandering to the wrong crowd. He wants the Maga vote. He is not going to get the Maga vote. They can’t stand him, think of him as a betrayer, and will never — not now, not years from now — cast a vote for Pence.

If Pence was smart, he’d have gone after the moderates. But he can’t do that either because he refuses to move at all to the center, and stubbornly persists in holding the title of not just conservative but bat-shit crazy conservative. So here stands Mike Pence — alone, not wanted, and so far not on the debate stage.