gov. mike pence pleased fellow conservatives by using tuesday<u+2019>s vice presidential debate to lay out what many of them called a fuller version of their views than the one commonly heard from presidential nominee donald trump. mr. pence distilled the republican economic message into just a few words, promising to boost the economy but lowering taxes, repealing the affordable care act and repealing executive orders and regulations. those ideas are gop orthodoxy, and mr. trump has built much of his campaign around them. but mr. pence was more expansive in describing them. he also talked about his opposition to abortion rights and support for the <u+201c>sanctity of life,<u+201d> saying democratic nominee hillary clinton supports federal funding for abortion and late-term procedures. mr. trump opposes abortion rights, but he once supported them, and he discusses the issue infrequently on the campaign trail. mr. pence pursued several lines of attack on mrs. clinton that many conservatives wished mr. trump had employed during the first presidential debate, such as noting that her family foundation accepted foreign donations while she supervised u.s. relations with foreign nations. mr. pence took a tough tone on russia, calling russian president vladimir putin <u+201c>small and bullying<u+201d> and saying his nation should be confronted with force. those comments contrasted with mr. trump<u+2019>s praise for mr. putin<u+2019>s leadership skills. mr. pence parried efforts to draw him into defending mr. trump<u+2019>s demeanor and past statements, in contrast to how mr. trump handled himself in the first debate. some conservative commentators said they saw differences between mr. pence and the candidate at the top of the ticket. others praised mr. pence both for his message and for the tempered way he delivered it. <u+201c>mike pence is a real conservative champion, not just because he votes the right way but in a calm, measured way, he articulates the conservative philosophy in a way that is not mean or condescending,<u+201d> said matt schlapp, chairman of the american conservative union, in the postdebate <u+201c>spin room.<u+2019><u+2019> <u+201c>pence has convinced me conservatives should not write him off for 2020 just by being trump<u+2019>s vp nominee,<u+201d> erick erickson, a prominent writer and critic of mr. trump, said on twitter. <u+201c>he was solid.<u+201d> <u+201c>once nice thing about the vp debate as opposed to the presidential: there was actually someone on stage making (some) conservative arguments,<u+201d> wrote conservative magazine publisher bill kristol on twitter. mr. pence, an evangelical christian, spoke in personal terms about his religious beliefs, another contrast with mr. trump, who rarely speaks about faith. <u+201c>my christian faith is at the very heart of who i am,<u+201d> he said, describing his life growing up as <u+201c>church<u+00a0>on sunday morning and grace before dinner.<u+201d> <u+201c>gov. pence beautifully defended the sanctity of life in<u+00a0>tonight<u+2019>s<u+00a0>debate, and that will resonate with people of faith, for whom the right to life is a foundational voting issue,<u+201d> said maureen ferguson of the catholic association, in a written statement.
conservatives praise mike pence<u+2019>s debate message - wsj
aaron zitner