Mike Pence: A Politician Just Doing Regular Normal Guy Stuff

This past week, Mike Pence came to Iowa. 

I have kind of dismissed Pence though I do know he has been spending a lot of time in the state. 

I mentioned his recent trip to Newton. 

This came as news from WPA Intelligence’s Iowa poll that showed Pence in front of Nikki Haley and Tim Scott. 

Trump 51 %

DeSantis 14 %

Ramaswamy 9 % 

Pence 7 %

Haley 6 %

Scott 4 %

Christie 4 % 

Now, the poll may be an outlier as another recent poll -Civiqs puts Haley in third place with 11% in Iowa. 

Trump 55 % 

DeSantis 17 %

Haley 11 %

Ramaswamy 5 % 

Scott 4 %

Christie 2 % 

Binkley 2 %

Burgum 1 %

Pence 1 %

So two possibilities. If Pence is indeed ahead, I can come up with a theory. Scott and Haley run TV ads constantly while Pence hasn’t. I’m not saying people do the opposite of what TV ads tell them, but maybe … 

When a politician interrupts your favorite TV show and tells you to vote for them

Politico’s Adam Wren covered Pence’s travels in Iowa on October 6 and 7 and with many apologies to him, since this blog is a collection of the weird and wonderful- and there's nothing weirder than a career politician doing normal "people" things- here’s a story of a politician doing normal people things. 

First, there was a haircut in Mount Ayr, Iowa. My social media spying says it was at Duck the Barbers and he walked around town. 

There's probably a joke about the 1950s here, but I am not going to make it

It did not go viral like his 2016 trip to a Pennsylvania barbershop that Pence made in a possible outreach to the Black community .  NPR reported back then:

Your name was — ?" Jones asked. Pence replied, "Mike Pence. I'm the governor of Indiana, and I'm running for vice president of the United States." 

This fact seemed to take Jones by surprise. 

"Go ahead, man," he said. "Vice president? Oh boy." "I'm running with Donald Trump. I'm his running mate," Pence said." "OK. All right. Oh boy." 

 Pence's 2023 trip featured an event at RAyr Market sponsored by the Ringold County Cattleman's Association. 

Pence served steak sandwiches and took the obligatory pictures holding a spatula. 

A better spatula holding technique than The Donald, I'm not gonna lie

 Pence also made it to Pizza Ranch, the usual meeting place for nearly all Republican candidates save the late Herman Cain who of course would go to Godfather’s 

This is the reason why this Onion article might be the most astute piece of journalism ever written about Iowa politics 

Accurate!

While in Iowa, Pence even signed excuse slips for a couple of teens who came to see him.

"This isn't going to wind up on eBay is it"- Pence (presumably)

 

Something he has done on the campaign trail before and as Veep in Anderson, Indiana in 2017 for a couple of six graders

The IndyStar ran this story September 22, 2017

 “You guys ever been to Washington?” Pence asked the sixth-graders. When they said they haven’t, he responded: “Okay, well, I came to see you, so could you maybe come to see me?” 

It wasn’t all fun and games for the former Vice President - The Hill reports that Mike Pence made mention of the recent border wall construction green lit by Joe Biden 

It’s pretty ironic to me that the last two days the Biden administration just announced they’re going to start building some wall,” Pence said. “Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and again.”

“Don’t be deceived. 26 miles ain’t going to get it,” he said. “But what I’m going to do if I’m President of the United States, I’m going to finish the wall.” 

Also on this trip, Pence went back to a point that he made when he visited Iowa back  in July (and ordered Salted Caramel Craze Ice Cream cone in the state’s ice cream capital - LeMars, Iowa). 

Ice Cream is really the undisputed nonpartisan World Champion

KTIV reported at that time::

Pence floated the idea of reopening mental hospitals, many of which he says were closed in the 1970s. According to the American Medical Association, they closed because of a belief that they were cruel, and that new medications may cure mental illness, on top of cost. Pence said he opened the first new mental hospital in 30 years when he was governor of Indiana. 

The LeMars Sentinel added 

 He said he blames a change in how America handles the mentally ill for creating a surge in homelessness. Pence said the novel and movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” pushed states and local governments to abandon institutional mental health treatment, and that had disastrous consequences. 

Lastly on Mike Pence's Perfect Friday in Iowa he went to Atlantic, Iowa to watch the Atlantic Trojans take on (and blank 21-0) the Perry Blue Jays in Class 3A High School football and even gave the opening coin toss. 

No, you know, this is actually kind of sweet.  I will refrain from my usual snarky comments this time

He took the usual selfie from the stands, got the crowd to get a “We Like Mike” chant going, and even was invited to the press box to deliver color commentary on KJAN Radio. 

Pence said he had never done color commentary but of course he had been on the radio. Pence hosted a daily radio show (or shows) in Indianapolis in the 90s- the Mike Pence Show- which Pence called “Rush Limbaugh on decaf”. 

 Earlier in the day, Wren reported Pence was excited about the prospect of the reenergized Indianapolis Colts- “My Colts have a new Quarterback. Things are looking pretty good.” 

Of course, any conversation about Pence and the NFL has to include his walkout of a Colts home game in October 2017 because of kneeling during the anthem. An event criticized by the LA Times a year later because of a purported $325,000 cost to taxpayers 

The 2017 Colts went 4-12 that year and were much easier to boycott than the Division leading 2023 group.