The way we weren’t

About halfway into Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, some American voters may have wondered: What if Gov. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) were running for top gun instead of wing man?

What if these two were our presidential candidates?

What-ifs are a maddening thought experiment a month ahead of Election Day, but after an erratic first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and an abysmal campaign week that followed, the vice presidential candidates came to Longwood University in Farmville, Va., prepared to discuss policy issues left on the cutting room floor of last week’s debate.

In some ways, they also seemed to reverse roles.

Kaine came out swinging as the aggressor, and often interrupted Pence during the moderator-required, two-minute responses to questions demanding far more in-depth discussion.

Indeed, moderator Elaine Quijano of CBSN seemed determined to blaze through her list of topics, even if it meant cutting off the candidates from substantive discussions on complex subjects. As soon as Pence brought up Clinton’s private email server (and how it may have compromised national security), Quijano announced it was time to move on.

Despite interruptions from Quijano and Kaine, Pence managed to remain composed, offering a persona the polar opposite of Trump’s aggressive and scattered performance last week against Clinton.

It’s part of a personal style starkly different from Trump, and part of an effort to assuage voters looking for stability on the GOP ticket.

Kaine landed his starkest blows when he quoted some of Trump’s worst hits—like the Republican nominee’s insulting language toward some women and some Mexicans. Pence tried to brush off the comments, but Kaine repeated them enough to try to make them stick in voters’ minds.

The pair discussed economics and foreign policy, and seemed to go a step farther than their running mates at times. Kaine claimed the Iranian nuclear deal shut down the country’s nuclear weapons program—a claim impossible to verify this quickly from a rogue regime. Meanwhile, Pence struck a more aggressive note toward Russia than Trump had been willing to sound during the campaign.

For social conservatives, one of the most interesting parts of the evening came near the end: a discussion about personal faith, public politics, and the issue of abortion. Kaine—a lifelong Catholic—said he’s personally opposed to abortion but believes the government should allow women to decide for themselves whether or not to abort their unborn children.

Pence—an evangelical—offered a deeply rooted argument for defending life, as he spoke about “the ancient principle where God says, ‘before you were formed in the womb I knew you.’” (He also dinged Clinton for calling for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment—the ban on federal funding for most abortions.)

Kaine tried to frame pro-life efforts as a push to punish women seeking abortions, instead of an effort aimed chiefly at saving the lives of the unborn. The candidate asked Pence, “Why don’t you trust women?”

Pence brought the subject back to the children involved: “A society can be judged by how it deals with its most vulnerable—the aged, the infirmed, the disabled, the unborn.” Those categories aren’t key voting blocs in the upcoming presidential election, but they are groups of people the Bible commends as important to protect and honor.

On religious issues, Pence did dodge a bullet on Tuesday night: He didn’t have to answer questions about the religious freedom bill that stirred massive controversy in Indiana last year. A week after signing the bill in March 2015, Pence signed an amendment that some said stripped the legislation of the protections it was designed to offer.

In a recent phone interview, Pence wouldn’t clarify whether he thought small business owners should receive religious conscience protections, saying only that the courts would decide. With only one vice presidential debate, Pence won’t have to face the question in this setting, though it may still remain on some voters’ minds.

Polls in the coming days will tell us more about whether the vice presidential debate matters much to undecided voters, or if they’re waiting for the next showdown between Clinton and Trump, which is scheduled for Sunday night.