2020 race: Mike Pence shows Donald Trump right road forward

It is unclear who can exert any meaningful influence over Donald Trump’s behaviour, but his deputy Mike Pence offered the clearest way forward if the president is to achieve a come-from-behind election win.

Pence, in this week’s Vice Presidential debate, gave a timely reminder to voters that there are genuine policy issues at play in this election beyond the huff and puff of Trump’s political theatre.

In measured tones, Pence pointed out the holes in the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket which should energise conservative voters.

These include their cynical refusal to promise not to ‘stack’ the Supreme Court in order to dilute the influence of the incoming conservative justice Amy Barrett.

Then there is the Democrat ticket’s close adherence to the spirit, if not quite the letter, of the left’s utopian climate change manifesto, the Green New Deal. Although Biden’s policy is not a replica of this Deal, the refusal of the Biden-Harris team to forcefully distance themselves from it, makes them ripe for attacks that their push for aggressive climate change action would destroy the jobs of numerous American workers.

And then there is the economy, where Pence made the argument that the Biden-Harris high taxing, big spending policies would lead to a slower economic recovery than the Trump-Pence low tax, free market approach.

The Trump-Pence ticket can point to the record of a strong economy before the pandemic to claim that they are better qualified to rebuild the economy once the virus eases.

Each of these issues, properly and forcefully conveyed to the electorate, are powerful vote winners for America’s conservatives.

But when Pence highlighted them, calmly and logically, during the debate, it only served to remind us all how much the actual policy debate in this election has been a sideshow to the Trump show.

It has been a diabolical two weeks for the president where, at each turn, he has made himself the story rather than highlight the policy differences between himself and the Biden-Harris ticket.

The first presidential debate was a lost opportunity for Trump to sell his policies to the electorate and remind them of the left-leaning nature of the Biden-Harris ticket.

Instead, Trump played the role of school bully, drowning out any hope of debate with bluster and aggressive interruptions which became the dominant story of the night.

Polls have since punished him badly for this misstep with Biden’s lead of 6.1 points ahead of the debate, now jumping to a formidable 9.7 points.

This week Trump compounded his problems further with his myopic response to his apparent fast-recovery from COVID-19.

Trump’s surprise motorcade past the hospital and then his theatrical helicopter re-entry to the White House, along with absurd claims that he is a “perfect physical specimen” who might be “immune” to the virus ensured that this week was all about Trump rather than his election campaign.

Trump’s rapid recovery was excellent news, but he squandered the opportunity it gave him through this self-indulgent and vainglorious response. It was a lost week for Trump at a time when he can ill afford it.

With less than four weeks to go, Trump’s road ahead is fast closing in on him. With Biden almost 10 points ahead nationally and with his lead also growing in the key battleground states, Trump needs to get back on message and quickly. Trump will lose this election, possibly by a landslide, unless something changes fast.

His own Vice President showed him the best way forward – to focus on the issues that appeal to conservative Americans rather than on a cult of personality.

(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)