I was disappointed that after the cool, calm and collected way that Hillary handled the first presidential debate, to the detriment of Trump, Tim Kaine was unable or unwilling to follow her example. I found that to be a huge disappointment.
In contrast, Pence exceeded the performance of the top half of his ticket.
But neither had anything new or worthwhile to add of any substance, and Pence is likely to be the loser in the fact checking department. His sole value in the debate was to deny the crazy on the right, of which he is a blind adherent, and to deny both his own voting record and the accumulated gaffes and follies of his presidential candidate.
What I did not see was any follow through on the Trump threat to attack Bill Clinton for infidelity, which I had expected from Pence has NOT conspicuously been involved in serial adultery, unlike other surrogates, notably Rudely Giuliani or the Nut Gingrich,.
It is never a winning position to simply lie and attempt to deceive. Only the true cultish believers will be persuaded to find merit, and there will be little if any aggregate gain in the long run.
Whatever damage control was accomplished by Pence will be undone in any case when Trump next opens his mouth, or grabs his phone in the wee hours of the morning to begin yet another tweet storm, showing himself to have the obsessive character of a creepy, old, degenerate, rabid stalker.