Mike Pence humiliates himself in Georgia
Just five days before election day, with Stacey Abrams gaining momentum as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Georgia, she brought in Oprah Winfrey today to try to help boost voter turnout. Her Republican opponent Brian Kemp is a racist and a cheater who’s trying to use his position as Georgia Secretary of State to rig the election in his favor. Looking to counter Oprah, and unable to find anyone good, he instead settled for… Mike Pence?
That’s right, Mike Pence. Close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine Pence going up against Oprah, and that’s pretty much how it played out. Oprah – who rarely gets involved with specific campaigns – gave an uplifting speech explaining the importance of turning out to vote, especially if your ancestors were denied the right to vote. She then went door to door, to help drive turnout. That’s right about when Mike Pence stepped to the plate.
Pence tried out this line during his speech: “I’d like to remind Stacey and Oprah and Will Ferrell, I’m kind of a big deal, too.” No. Just no. Pence was trying to be funny, but all he did was highlight the fact that he’s so widely unpopular, celebrities like Oprah and Will Ferrell are in fact a much bigger deal in political circles than he is.
Then, in an apparent attempt at making things worse, Mike Pence said “I’ve got a message for all of Stacey Abrams’ liberal Hollywood friends: This ain’t Hollywood. This is Georgia.” Really, that’s fascinating, considering Pence is from Indiana, a thousand miles away from Georgia, and now he’s a Washington insider. But there are worse fates than being Mike Pence. Even though Brian Kemp is in real danger of losing as a Republican in a red state, he decided to bring in Pence instead of Donald Trump, because Trump is even more toxically unpopular.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report