A President Pence would calm the crazy but not the controversy A promotion for the VP is certainly possible. And while you may loathe his politics, he's not the type to wake up and launch bombers in a snit.

Tim Swarens | Indianapolis Star Opinion

The BBC reporter asked me in a radio interview two questions that many Americans may ask themselves in the year ahead:

Could Mike Pence become president? If so, what kind of president would Pence be?

Let's answer the first question first. A President Pence is certainly possible.

Anyone who thinks otherwise has been binge-watching A Christmas Prince while the political world descended from strange to weird to zombie-attack crazy over the past two years.

More: Trump takes birth control back into court

More: How Trump can help Republicans in 2018 (if critics let his team do its job)

More: McCain and Flake stood up for U.S. values and unity: Arizona Republic editorial

Just this week, George Will, the dean of conservative commentators since the Lincoln administration, declared Donald Trump the worst president in the nation's history. That's like your mom voting against you in a beauty contest.

Trump, reaching bottom in less than a year, is determined to keep digging. Jan. 20, 2021 remains far in the distance.

So how long will it take key Republican leaders to conclude that Trump's toxicity may prove fatal to their own political future, especially if special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation starts to close in on the Oval Office?

The prospect of impeachment, although still unlikely, is no longer confined to the fevered fantasies of the Bernie Sanders Brigade. A growing number of observers on the right and the left already have concluded that Trump presents a serious danger to the nation and the world. Their ranks grow with every unhinged tweet the president unleashes.

Waiting on deck meanwhile is a mild-mannered former Midwestern governor whose code word is "Caution." You may loathe Mike Pence's politics, but he's not the type to wake up one morning and launch bombers in a snit.

Which brings us back to the British reporter's second question. What kind of president would Pence be?

First, the chaos but not necessarily the controversy would subside. Twitter's stock price would plunge, but we would again have a commander in chief who doesn't carelessly insult needed allies and shred his credibility (and the nation's) on unpredictable whims.

Second, Pence would be the most conservative president in the nation's history. As such, his policies would be decidedly controversial.

More: How Trump can help Republicans in 2018 (if critics let his team do its job)

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

Pence first climbed on the Trump train in part from a sense of spiritual calling ("for such a time as this") and in part out of political and personal ambition. But also because he saw the chance to help lead a conservative revolution from the inside.

Trump is even more unstable than many of us feared before he took office, but he has been more reliably conservative than predicted.

The vice president — strongly supportive of the administration's tax reform law, its rollback on regulations and its transformation of the judiciary — would continue largely in the same direction on policy.

It would be Trumponomics without the crazy.

That of course wouldn't mollify the current president's critics on the left. They'd simply shift the accusation that the White House plans to starve grandma and dynamite the Grand Canyon from the current Oval Office occupant to his replacement.

But it would be a return to more conventional political warfare. The left would wail. The right would defend. But we'd at least go to bed at night without concern that the next day will bring a meltdown beyond the point of return.

In a time of unparalleled chaos at the top, Mike Pence is our safety He'd better stay ready.

Tim Swarens is opinion editor at the Indianapolis Star, where this column first appeared. Follow him on Twitter @tswarens