Day Three Of The Republican Convention Got A Little Wild

As Harry wrote last week, Mike Pence is an extremely conservative choice for VP and could be a smart one for Trump, as the nominee consistently lost to Ted Cruz among very conservative voters during the primaries.

But Pence is still pretty unknown to voters, and at this point, is disliked as far as VP candidates go.

Mike Pence is relatively unknown and disliked

			OPINION OF CANDIDATE
YEAR	PARTY	VP CANDIDATE	FAVORABLE	UNFAVORABLE	NET FAV.	HAVE AN OPINION
1976	D	Walter Mondale	14%	6%	+8	20%
1980	R	George H.W. Bush	25	23	+2	48
1984	D	Geraldine Ferraro	5	2	+3	7
1988	D	Lloyd Bentsen	16	6	+10	22
1988	R	Dan Quayle	24	18	+6	42
1992	D	Al Gore	29	9	+20	38
1996	R	Jack Kemp	33	14	+19	47
2000	D	Joe Lieberman	33	6	+27	39
2000	R	Dick Cheney	29	10	+19	39
2004	D	John Edwards	26	11	+15	37
2008	D	Joe Biden	27	22	+5	49
2008	R	Sarah Palin*	22	9	+13	31
2012	R	Paul Ryan*	25	25	0	49
2016	R	Mike Pence*	9	15	-6	23

Can someone explain to me why the Trump people allowed Cruz to talk tonight? They knew Cruz wasn’t going to endorse Trump. They — and we — had Cruz’s prepared remarks. Did Trump’s people think that Cruz was going to have a change of heart? I’m not sure why the Trump campaign would bank on that. There are Cruz’s ideological disagreements with Trump, but it’s also worth remembering that Trump intimated that Cruz’s father was involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination and attacked Cruz’s wife. So, why give Cruz a prime-time speaking slot?