The difficulties for each and every camp posed by the reality of Donald Trump

Rich Lowry, editor of the magazine, National Review, that famously, in the spring of 2016, published an issue entirely devoted to opposing Donald Trump, threads the needle in his latest piece there, begrudgingly acknowledging a plain fact:

The president who says more outlandish and untrue things than anyone who has ever occupied the office of the presidency is also extraordinarily determined to deliver on his big promises.

Trump often doesn’t mean what he says, but when he says what he means — watch out. The combined forces of international pressure, polite opinion, outraged New York Times editorials, resistant advisers and sheer inertia aren’t an obstacle.

Many, including LITD, have argued that the laudable accomplishments to date could have been achieved by an actual conservative president, one with some consistency and a guiding set of principles. Lowry's not so sure:

It wasn’t simply that these decisions had opponents. Their opponents were overrepresented in (allegedly) sophisticated circles with disproportionate cultural clout. Even conservatives who disdain the elite feel this cultural pull. Whereas Trump, who has never been housetrained as a politician, is more immune to it. He might crave the approval of respectable opinion, but he’s also perfectly content to outrage it.

Now, over to the left side of the spectrum. Caitlin Huey-Burns at Real Clear Politics points up the challenges for Democrats in this midterm election year in a good-and-improving economic climate:

. . . efforts to explain the party’s plan to “revisit” the tax law if elected to the House majority underscore the difficult question Democrats are trying to answer: How do you talk about the economy when the economy is good?

“Every time [Democrats] deny the economy is starting to turn or get better for certain parts of the population, they also hurt themselves,” says party strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “They appear to be cheering on bad news.”

And Democrats could face a similar challenge on recent news about Trump’s plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, seen as entirely separate issue but nevertheless one that relates to overall feelings of security. While success on that front is hypothetical at this point, opponents of the president are already trying to balance skepticism and applauding signs of progress. A CNN poll released this week, for example, found that 77 percent of Americans approve of the meeting.

That same survey found that 52 percent of voters approve of Trump's handling of the economy, up from 48 percent in March. And 57 percent of voters said things overall are going well, up from 49 percent registered in the last poll on that question in February.  

Now, let's talk about George Will's Washington Post column, which is mainly about Mike Pence, in the context of Pence having decided his own character was of tertiary importance or less compared to doing what's necessary to keep his current job:

Donald Trump, with his feral cunning, knew. The oleaginous Mike Pence, with his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, could, Trump knew, become America’s most repulsive public figure. And Pence, who has reached this pinnacle by dethroning his benefactor, is augmenting the public stock of useful knowledge. Because his is the authentic voice of today’s lickspittle Republican Party, he clarifies this year’s elections: Vote Republican to ratify groveling as governing.

Will offers a couple of examples of what he means: the cabinet meeting at which members went around the table giving personal testimonies to their utter fealty to the VSG and how it kicked off an ongoing "I'm deeply humbled" riff, the shout-out to Joe Arpaio, he of the VSG pardon.

Chris Cilliza's take at CNN on Will's column is also worth noting. For one thing, his characterization of Will ("the always-use-the-$1,000-word-when-the-$1-word-would-do wordsmith") is just plain great writing. But he provides some additional insight into Pence's transformation - his "faustian bargain," as Cilizza puts it:

Pence came to prominence during his days in the House. He rocketed up through the ranks in Congress thanks to his ability to bridge the gap between social and fiscal conservatives and his telegenic presence on cable TV. He left Congress in 2012 to run for governor -- a move widely seen as laying the groundwork for a national bid.

But Pence's political future grew cloudy as chief executive of his home state -- bogged down by a massive national controversy over his decision to sign a religious freedom bill and then his backtracking on some of the provisions in it viewed as anti-gay. By 2016, Pence was facing a serious battle for a second term. His hopes of being a major player on the national stage had faded considerably.

And then Trump named him as VP. 

From Pence's perspective, it all made sense. No one thought Trump would win. In the wake of that loss, Pence could effectively portray himself as a party guy, someone who signed on to a troubled ticket in hopes of rescuing it for the good of the party but ultimately couldn't do it. The Trump loss would fall entirely on Trump and his deep flaws as a candidate. Pence would emerge unscathed and, as importantly, with a massive amount of name ID and credibility with Republican activists and donors looking for a 2020 nominee to take down President Hillary Clinton.

Except Trump won. And that changed everything for Pence. The second it was clear Trump was actually going to be president, Pence grasped the fact that he was now wedded to Trump forever. And, rather than run from that characterization or try to create some healthy distance between himself and the wildly unpredictable President, Pence sprinted toward Trump and laid a massive bear hug on him. And he's never let go.

At every bill signing ceremony, Pence is there -- perched just off Trump's shoulder, smiling and nodding reassuringly. When Trump causes controversy with some impolitic comment, Pence is there to calm the jangled nerves of Republican congressional leaders and give media interviews about what Trump really meant. When Trump holds a Cabinet meeting, Pence is there to lavish praise on the boss man. ("I'm deeply humbled as your vice president to be able to be here," Pence told Trump at an end-of-the-year cabinet meeting in 2017. "Because of your leadership and because of the strong support of the leadership of the Congress, you're delivering on that middle class miracle.")

Who can envy Pence's fate? At least the rest of us - most certainly a fifteenth-tier blogger banging away in a decidedly non-coastal locale - have some elbow room in how to deal with the VSG phenomenon.

But none of us can ignore it. The guy's too momentous.

If you're a conservative, consider this advice: Carry no one's water. Insist on fealty to principles. You'll inevitably be disappointed by the paltry degree to which any individual is eventually going to perform on that score, but that is, as they say, baked in to the equation.

In other words, applaud Trump's good moves, but don't lick his boots.