Former Vice President Mike Pence needs to raise his game.
In a Wednesday speech at Georgetown University pre-billed as outlining “The Future of the Conservative Movement,” Pence gave a version of the standard-issue speech he has been making for 20 years. It was a decent speech, principled and on target philosophically, but hardly a rallying cry for, or an insightful analysis of, the conservative movement. There were no particularly memorable lines. There was nothing noticeably new and only one mild call to action.
PENCE QUIPS ‘SOMEBODY ELSE’ THAN TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT IN 2024
Speaking at a university that for years hasn’t come close to ensuring its students have more than a passing acquaintance with the nation’s founding documents (I have seen this firsthand at Georgetown), Pence merits praise for that one specific prescription.
“Take your time to wrap your minds and heart around the founding documents of this country,” he said, and then, specifically of the Constitution, he added, “You should learn it.”
Further: “Some on the Left … demean the American founding. [But] let the Constitution and Declaration [of Independence] be your guide if you aspire to public service.”
This is a message every high schooler and collegian in the nation should hear and heed and which very few of them actually do. But it is hardly more than a bromide, especially if unaccompanied by anything illustrative to flesh it out. Apart from a few pat lines about how college students seem broadly to appreciate freedom, Pence offered nothing concrete to show how to put the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or “freedom” into practice.
As has usually been the case with Pence, his speech also wasn’t leavened by many signs of humor. His delivery is friendly and accessible enough, to be sure (and even more so in a Q&A session afterward), but ponderous. And while it is comforting to hear anybody these days harkening back to the conservatism (or classical liberalism) of Ronald Reagan and James Madison rather than to mindless sloganeering or weird quasi-conservative offshoots, Pence did little to provide any narrative drive. Pence seemed content to just tread water.
It need not be this way. Pence is a man of substance and principle with a solid record of achievement in Congress and as Indiana’s governor. Insiders know how much of a steadying hand Pence offered during the volatile Trump administration and how much of the credit for President Donald Trump’s successes was due to Pence and his team. And it’s not as if Pence in general offers staleness on policy and ideas: The “Freedom Agenda” he offered earlier this year is (as I described it when it was released) “big, bold, and specific.”
Indeed, some of us (ahem) have wanted for 15 years for Pence to be president and perhaps even wrote in his name a time or two.
But rather than bold and specific, Pence at Georgetown was formulaic. Sometimes formulaic is OK: After all, no politician can possibly make every speech new and different. But if an address is boldly labeled as being a big deal about “the future of the conservative movement,” well, the speech should match the bold labeling.
Of course, Pence can only be Pence. He can’t be Reagan. He can’t be Trump. He can’t be Abe Lincoln. Nobody expects him to be. Pence’s best, though, can be winningly reassuring through sincerity and competence. Nonetheless, if Pence is going to prevail in a tough 2024 presidential field, his best needs to be better (more energetic, inspirational, and concretely substantive) than what he showed in Georgetown’s Gaston Hall.
To mix sports metaphors, Pence may not have punted, but he bunted. He can do better.
