My pastor once preached a sermon on 1 Corinthians 15:33 – “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’”

He said it was always easier to be pulled down by somebody than to be pulled up.

He had a point.

Governor Mike Pence, once described as a man of good character, is morphing into a typical, crass Trump acolyte.

“This s—t is really fun to watch, I’ll tell you what,” Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, told a crowd in Ashland, Va., at his final rally before the vice presidential debate.

“It’s like almost every day they come up with something new and different,” Pence said of the media. “They say, ‘Now we got him,’ ‘He said this,’ ‘We can parse that,’ you with me? ‘He tweeted this.’ And they think they finally got him.”

“And then they turn on the television the next morning and Donald Trump is still standing stronger than ever before and fighting for the American people,” he added.

Except that’s not really how it is, is it?

Trump is trailing in most states.

His first debate performance showed with stunning clarity just how unqualified and unserious he is, as a candidate.

His subsequent behavior, rather than attempt to do damage control, only doubled down on the fail.

We can only hope that Pence is better prepared for his debate tonight against Tim Kaine, and that he doesn’t try to emulate Trump’s unhinged debate strategy.