Indiana's Mike Pence Shooting for Governor and Maybe White House

Just when you thought Sarah Palin was in a class by herself when it comes to unmitigated chutzpah.   Here comes Mike Pence.  What?  You never heard of Mike Pence.

Well, he is a Republican congressman from Indiana.  He says, in one breath, he is seriously thinking of running for the White House in 2012.  And in another breath, he talks about shooting for the Governor's mansion.

Just like Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska, Pence is confident he could win either as a gubernatorial candidate or as a Presidential contender.

He calls himself a military and fiscal hawk who frequently plugs his Christian credentials.

 For example, the former 51-year-old radio personality is not embarrassed to shout that he became a darling among fiscal conservatives for opposing two of President George W. Bush's signature initiatives, the 2001 No Child Left Behind education act and the 2003 Medicare Part D drug benefit.

He saw both as violating his party's small-government principles, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Pence favors reducing the size of the federal government, and even the power of the presidency.

He wants to amend the Constitution, both to ban abortions and to allow marriage only between men and women. He says increased security along the Mexican border must precede any immigration overhaul.

"He is definitely the guy to watch," Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, a group that also opposes gay marriage and abortion, is fond of repeating.

Pence will be watched all right.  From the sidelines, where he will be sitting with Sarah Palin, trying to figure out how both got dumped by American voters in 2012.

What do you think?

 

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