Conservative leaders were effusive with their praise of vice presidential candidate Mike Pence's victory over Tim Kaine in Tuesday night's fiery debate.
“Is it too late to replace Donald Trump with Mike Pence?” conservative direct mail guru Richard Viguerie said. “Cancel the next two presidential debates and rerun the vice presidential debate in place of the presidential debate and the Republicans win in a walk.”
Viguerie felt that “the split screen showed a rude and smirking Tim Kaine. With the sound on or off, he was a big loser.”
“Mike Pence laid claim to be the clear and obvious heir to Ronald Reagan with nobody in second place,” he said, “and will be the leader of the conservative cause for years to come.”
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said without hesitation: “Pence won the debate.”
Norquist stressed that “the media talking about this debate showed their hand — they admit Pence won, but they intend to focus on reliving Kaine's attacks and hope to change that.”
Norquist added, “Tim Kaine interrupted and name-called, and was weaker than I expected. Pence was very well-prepared and focused.”
Howard Kaloogian, national spokesman of the Tea Party Express, said “Tim Kane opened with the statement he wanted to make regardless of what question he was asked. He was an ‘establishment’ politician to the core, and he was rude and interrupting.”
Pence, Kaloogian said, “hit a nerve when he brought up the current failed foreign policy crafted by Hillary. He hit it out of the park when he discussed how Hillary always uses tragedy to advance her personal political ambition by attacking the police at every turn. Kaine’s response was to discuss Trump’s unfiltered comments, as if that was a policy prescription to crime.
“If voters focus on policy, Trump wins. If voters focus on personality, Hillary probably wins.”
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