If you had asked me a few days ago, did I favor removal of Trump from the Presidency, I am quite sure I would have said YES!

Since then, while he has done nothing to change my mind, common sense entered my worried head and I now think ‘we’ all should have second thoughts on that question. Do not worry. I have not gone soft on Trump.

IF Trump is dumped, Pence obviously becomes President. He appears to be a steady, calm man, but his views on too many subjects are too far to the right: e.g. abortion, taxes, health care, immigration etc. AND, he and the Republican leaders in Congress likely would get along beautifully and enact what they can NOT with Trump as President.

On the other hand, if Trump remains in office, he in all likelihood will continue to roil the waters with his nutty tweets, alternative facts etc. That will continue to get in the way of much that the Republican leadership wants to achieve in Congress. And, on balance we will continue to experience three more years of fatiguing wrangling but probably less long term damage than if Pence became President.

AND, an even bigger reason to leave Trump in office now is that with him and the Republican leadership prancing around the maypole, the chances grow stronger that the electorate in 2018 may have become so disgusted, that they will turn a lot of Republicans out of office, which could lessen future political damage in 2019-2020. But, if Pence is President during that period, things could become boringly predictable and conservative, which quite likely would help congressional Republicans in the elections in 2018 and 2020.

I strongly suspect that a lot of folks will disagree with me because they so hate Trump and in different ways trust Pence even less, but it cannot hurt to give real consideration to this thought process.

In addition, the odds still are that Trump will remain in office without any new  ‘forbearance ’ from Democrats, to the point that the Republican leadership may themselves take the bull by the horns and wrestle Trump out of office, just to get to the Pence option?

Strange world that we live in?