When he was announced, one of the first thoughts I had was Pence criticizing something Trump says late in the campaign, thereby undermining Trump and potentially allowing the elite to claim Trump lost because he was too extreme. I imagine Trump is confident with Pence.
Pence is a good example of what is wrong in the party. He signed that religious freedom bill angering liberals even though, “the language was bad.” Then surrendered in humiliating defeat angering the base of the Republican party. Now he is running at the top of the party and liberals are still attacking him for signing that bill, giving him no credit for caving, and there is still a sizeable segment of the base that doesn’t trust or respect him for caving. We need to break out of this circle.
The only time liberals will give a Republican a positive nod is when it directly benefits them to do so. Besides that, right now he is the opposition. Thus they would never say anything nice about the opposition in that circumstance.