1. It’s Wednesday, October 5, 2016.

2. The election is 34 days away. The Mets are going to beat the Giants tonight in the National League Wild Card Game.

3. Mike Pence is a despicable man.

As governor of Indiana, he’s approved punitive measures for women who choose not to go through with a pregnancy.

He’s approved measures that legalize discrimination against people who love other people of the same sex.

He’s refused to address the state’s opioid epidemic in ways that would actually help solve it.

And he once denied that smoking causes death.

None of that – none – came up in last night’s vice presidential debate.

Instead, he’s getting credit for deflecting Tim Kaine’s admittedly overcaffinated attacks and getting zinged for not actually defending his creepy running mate.

But Mike Pence is running for Vice President of the United States. That would put him one choking-on-a-KFC-chicken-bone away from the Oval Office.

And he has no business being there.

I understand Kaine’s mission was to defend Hillary Clinton. He did that.

But to me, that was short-sighted. He let Pence emerge as a calm presence on the stage, when everything he’s done in politics screams overbearing imposer of his own morality.

It was a lost opportunity. It might not matter in the 2016 election, but it matters in the discourse of the nation – especially if this election helps Pence emerge as the front runner in 2020 or 2024.