Steller: Pence tries to balance unbalanced running-mate

Tucson hosted the Republican nominee for vice president Tuesday in one of those rare moments — a window of time when he didn’t have to explain an outrageous comment made by his running mate, Donald Trump.

The story of Army Capt. Humayun Khan — the deceased soldier whose parents Trump couldn’t resist criticizing after the father spoke at the Democratic convention — had subsided enough for Mike Pence to ignore it.

And news that Donald Trump declined Tuesday morning to endorse Sen. John McCain or House Speaker Paul Ryan was just starting to filter out when Pence took the stage at the Fox Theatre downtown.

That allowed Pence, for a moment, to be what he was hired to be — the yin to Trump’s yang, the milk to Trump’s coffee, the balance to Trump’s imbalance.

So, for those 50 minutes, Pence could make the case to a crowd of 900 or so ready to hear it, that Trump was the unadulterated right choice for president. Not someone to occasionally correct, as Pence has before. Someone you’ll be proud of.

“Donald Trump is the genuine article. He’s a doer,” Pence said to applause. “When Donald Trump does his talking, he doesn’t tiptoe around the thousands of rules of political correctness. He’s his own man.”

The performance was relatively low-key — you might almost call it “low-energy,” the phrase Trump used to mock Jeb Bush when he was a candidate. And it’s what Trump needs — to protect himself from himself.

I talked to a handful of Trump supporters after the event, and they noticed two key things. One was that Pence was wholehearted in his words of support for Trump. That alone is interesting — when was the last time you could question whether a vice presidential candidate wanted his running mate to win?

The other was the calm that Pence exudes. Stephanie Redman, 37, said of Pence “I think he equalizes (Trump).”

“One’s super-energetic, the other’s more level,” she said.

“Super-energetic” is an exceedingly nice way of putting it. “Off the rails” is a more accurate way to describe the Republican nominee. Narcissistic. Just plain scary in his overreaction to even minor disagreement.

It’s a reality that Republican leaders have been unable to grapple with. Their voters have chosen a presidential candidate who is beyond his depth in both knowledge of the world and in the demand for self-discipline required of a candidate — and especially of a president.

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Let’s not forget that while Trump’s comments on the Khan family were rightfully dominating political news, Trump also said that women who suffer sexual harassment at work should find another job or line of work. And before that he said he had wanted to “hit” several of the speakers who criticized him at the Democratic convention.

Then he went on Tuesday to indulge in the political pettiness he’s become known for. He called out several Republicans who haven’t wholeheartedly endorsed him: Ryan, Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and, most important to us in Arizona, Sen. John McCain, whom he would not endorse for re-election.

There’s a lot going on in the dynamic between those two men. It goes back before July last year, when Trump said McCain “is not a war hero” because he “was captured.”

What a bigger man than Trump — a Pence, for example — would do is accept McCain’s tepid support. McCain has said he’s supporting Trump, so he should let that be enough. For Trump though, it’s not.

Now, McCain should follow his conscience and really lead, never mind the consequences to his political future in the primary race . He should say what we all know he thinks — that Trump is not fit to be president. And he should say he will not support Trump.

He’s not the only one. Sen. Jeff Flake and Rep. Martha McSally, both Republicans of sound mind, should do the same. Trump has provided all the justification they need, and history will judge them kindly for it.

They don’t have to support Hillary Clinton. They can simply say they won’t support Trump.

It’s way too late, of course, for Pence. When Trump asked him to be his running mate, Pence recounted, “I said yes in a heartbeat because you have nominated a man who never quits, who never backs down.”

“Up until recently, it seems like he was doing it all on his own, but now we are united,” Pence went on, referring to the long-sought unity of the Republican Party.

Little did he know, his unhinged running mate was undoing those words even as he spoke.

The window of calm had closed. Pence would have to deal with that at his next stop, in Phoenix, where he was to meet with McCain.