Pence may as well have been talking about this entire 2016 election. From the moment Pence accepted Trump's vice-presidential nomination this June, he's been in a sometimes-awkward, often-difficult, ultimately no-win situation: How does someone like Pence, a traditional social conservative with deep establishment roots, defend and champion the most untraditional and controversial major-party presidential nominee in modern history?

After watching Pence campaign these past few months, the answer seems to be a reality he acknowledged in part Saturday: He can't.