The Pence endorsement

Noah Rothman at Commentary and Streiff at Red State both arrive at the same attribution of a motive.

Interestingly, both use the word "tepid" to describe the endorsement.

Rothman entitles his explanation "It's Not Resignation; It's Fear," while Strieff goes for a more plain-spoken way of expressing it: "Is Pence Really This Much of a P---y?" Likewise, Rothman is more willing see what Pence is up against politically, while Strieff concludes it was just plain shameful.

While I understand that he opposed some of W's mushier initiatives and was active in the Republican Study Committee while in the House, and before that forthrightly offered bracing conservative opinions on a statewide talk show in Indiana, I'm inclined toward Strieff's view. I say that as someone who has had lunch with him one-on-one (when he led a statewide think tank) and knows some of his family.

As Eliana Johnson points out at NRO, he knows what the stakes are and what a morally rotten person Donald Trump is:

He loathes Trump, and genuinely believes that Cruz and Trump are fighting for the soul of the Republican party. Echoing Ronald Reagan’s endorsement of Barry Goldwater in 1964, he said Wednesday that the race represents “a time for choosing.” So the choice for him was always between backing Cruz and staying on the sidelines. But sources familiar with his decision say his advisers by and large counseled him against an endorsement, arguing it would hurt his chances in a tough reelection battle this fall, and the 2016 race has certainly raised the question of how much endorsements matter. At the same time, Pence came under intense pressure from conservative donors, politicians, and media figures — many of them close personal friends — to back Cruz. The result was a lukewarm endorsement that left both sides unsatisfied. Throughout, he sounded more like a man copping to intense pressure than an advocate offering his unqualified support. 

She goes on to discuss the pressure the Ricketts family - owners of the Chicago Cubs, and backers of both Pence and Cruz - futon Pence to endorse. One senses that they were frustrated with his lack of resoluteness in response.

Oh, and there's that term - "tepid" - again n Johnson's article.

To get a sense of how tepid, compare it to the forthright and enthusiastic endorsement Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wrote in the op-ed page of the Indianapolis Star.

If you're really terrified that the fates of the conservative movement, he Republican party and America hang n the balance, then you act on principle, without a molecule of equivocation.