"was therefore of little political value other than what he provided." How does that make him lucky? Seems he provided exactly what was wanted of him.
TC has always tried walking on the edge of saying what he could get by with w/o causing high backlash - causing his employer problems - vs. what you tell was really underneath but couldn't say. I watched his old program a few times & I realized he was too kooky for me. Intelligent? Yes. Smart? Not so much.
Because if anyone else besides trump won the nomination, pence wasnt needed at all. You could well argue trump won over evangelicals pretty quickly with little help from pence anyway. So at most pence was just an insurance policy.