Introducing the Donald Trump-Mike Pence divergence tracker
Good summary of some major positions for Trumpy and pence. Good reference.
Introducing the Donald Trump-Mike Pence divergence tracker
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/04/introducing-the-donald-trump-mike-pence-divergence-tracker/?tid=pm_politics_pop_b
By Rebecca Sinderbrand and Amber Phillips August 4 at 3:10 PM
Occasionally on the same stage. Often on a different page. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
Whether he sets foot onstage with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump is very likely to find himself engaged in some sort of debate this fall — with his running mate.
It's not that Trump and vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence are publicly sparring. (Try to imagine Pence sparring. Go ahead. We don't have nearly enough imagination.) It's that, rather than embrace a joint message, they seem to be running two distinct, parallel campaigns, often relating two very distinct, entirely unrelated — and sometimes opposite — points of view.
Here's how that usually works: The Indiana governor will watch a Trump comment explode across the media firmament. He’ll wait a decent interval — as long as several days — before issuing a response that either reframes the Republican nominee’s central point as the exact opposite of what he actually said or stakes out a different position entirely. And then, within minutes or hours, Trump will do the same — in reverse. (More on that below. A lot more.)
The fact that the distance between their respective messages is sometimes wide enough to drive a campaign bus through isn't a huge shock. That's not just because of their stark differences in biography and temperament. Or the reality that the main thing the two seem to have in common is that they both want Donald Trump to become president of the United States. It's because Pence has spent his career — up to and including the period after his selection as Trump's VP — advocating policies and supporting individuals that the nominee hasn't, and doesn't (at least: not while he's been running for president).
If you're having trouble picturing what that sort of debate might look and sound like, we've got a preview. Here are nearly a dozen positions Trump has advocated, starting with the beginning of his campaign last year and working through to the present, that Pence — hasn't. And vice versa.
— Free trade................................
