Pence Passes on Presidential Pursuit

Right-wing Republican Rep. Mike Pence, trickle-down conservative, theocrat, Tea Party fave, and one of the GOP’s most partisan leaders in the House, announced last night — to the sort of triumphal fanfare usually reserved for ticker-taped astronauts (no, not really) — that he will not (repeat: not) be running for president in 2012 and may instead run for governor of Indiana:

Pence’s decision not to seek national office in favor of a likely run for governor of Indiana is a major blow to conservative activists and tea party leaders, who saw Pence as someone who could unite the traditional GOP base — evangelical and social conservatives — with the tea party’s fiscal hawks.

And it’s left a major opening for someone in a heavily crowded GOP presidential field: At the Value Voters Summit last year, Pence won the straw poll for both president and vice president, beating better-known candidates like Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.

Pence has a fair amount of support on the right, that is, in the mainstream of an increasingly far-right GOP, and his departure from a race that hasn’t even started yet does indeed open the door for a Huckabee or a Gingrich (not likely) or a Palin (also not likely) to carry the conservative banner against Romney (trying so hard to be a conservative but not succeeding), Giuliani (a conservative on national security but with far too much moderate baggage from his New York past), and Pawlenty (presenting himself as a conservative but more Midwestern pragmatist than right-wing ideologue).

But I look at it another way. I didn’t think he could win, but his departure means we’re that much closer to what is undeniably the dream Republican ticket for 2012:

It’s just so perfect. And the more Republican wannabes who drop out, the more likely it’ll be the reality we all want.

(Cross-posted from The Reaction.)