Mike Pence is Trump's Lap Poodle - Chemotherapy for the GOP

George F. Will: Trump's vile candidacy is chemotherapy for the GOP

Excerpt:

Because Pence looks relatively presidential when standing next to Trump — talk about defining adequacy down — some Republicans want Trump to slink away, allowing Pence to float to the top of the ticket and represent Republicanism resurrected.

This idea ignores a pertinent point: Pence is standing next to Trump. He salivated for the privilege of being Trump's poodle, and he expresses his canine devotion in rhetorical treacle about "this good man." What would a bad man look like to pastor Pence?  ....

Trump should stay atop the ticket, for four reasons.

1. First, he will give the nation the pleasure of seeing him join the one cohort, of the many cohorts he disdains, that he most despises — "losers."
2. Second, by continuing to campaign in the spirit of St. Louis, he can remind the nation of the useful axiom that there is no such thing as rock bottom.
3. Third, by persevering through November 8 he can simplify the GOP's quadrennial exercise of writing its post-campaign autopsy, which this year can be published November 9 in one sentence: "Perhaps it is imprudent to nominate a venomous charlatan."
4. Fourth, Trump is the GOP's chemotherapy, a nauseating but, if carried through to completion, perhaps a curative experience.

Comment: Can the GOP hold the Senate? The House? Looking to 2020