Pence: 'Donald Trump gets it. He's the genuine article.'

For a guy who supposedly loathed Donald Trump until, oh, the middle of last week, Mike Pence sure made a compelling case for his running mate last night. Watch this address if you didn't last night, and you'll get a sense of why Trump chose him. Not only does Pence make a strong case for conservative policies, but he makes an even stronger case that Trump is the guy to make them happen. Of course, Pence has to be a lot more confident of that if the vice president is Mike Pence. But then, why shouldn't he? From his experience in Congress to his excellent governing record in Indiana, Pence has every reason to be confident in his own abilities to help bring all this about. If Trump is a secret leftist who's plotting to pull the world's biggest flim-flam on conservatives once he's elected, he sure didn't make his task any easier by choosing this guy to become vice president:

I've said since Pence was chosen, and I'll reiterate here, that I believe Trump was looking for a vice president who could fill in the detailed policy knowledge that Trump lacks. You can criticize Trump for lacking that knowledge, but this is what good CEOs always do. It's not that you consider your weaknesses some sort of virtue. But everyone has weaknesses, and a good leader finds people who are strong in those areas rather than acting insecure and always having to feel like the smartest guy in the room. The best line, to me, was this one about the state of the economy - which has languished with economic growth barely pushing 2 percent on an annual basis ever since we came out of the so-called Great Recession: "This is not the best we can do. This is only the best they can do." So here's a question: If certain people are to be believed, Pence couldn't stand Trump until the VP discussions started. What's the real story here? Is it a) that it was never true in the first place? b) it's still true and Pence is just a really good faker? or c) once he met Trump and had a chance to really talk to him, he realized he had not judged him fairly? My money would be on C, but only Pence knows for sure. What I do know is that this was a really great speech, and it was delivered in such a way that you don't have to be a rock-ribbed conservative to find it appealing. I think Pence will be a real asset on the campaign trail this summer and fall.