Update of vice presidential debate

For one night, Mike Pence put a calmer, gentler face on the 2016 Republican ticket. And Tim Kaine's pestering style helped him do it.
But the Indiana governor's big night in Tuesday's vice presidential debate might not transfer to his running mate, Donald Trump.

Kaine -- Hillary Clinton's number two -- spent his night throwing all of Trump's most politically damaging lines at Pence and asking him to explain them. For the most part, Pence passed, dismissing his "pre-done lines" and "insult-driven campaign."
Here are five takeaways from the vice presidential debate:

Pence's temperament wins the night
The Indiana governor -- once a self-styled "Rush Limbaugh on decaf" radio host -- was in full talk-radio mode Tuesday night.
Kaine, meanwhile, should switch to decaf.
His interruptions -- one after another after another -- were so distracting that it often detracted from the substance of the debate and made policy conversations hard to follow.


Reality check: Kaine accused Trump of insult-driven campaign 01:58
The Virginia senator was trying to mimic Vice President Joe Biden's style against Paul Ryan in 2012 -- but Kaine can't pull off lines like "malarkey." And Pence, who honed his skills reacting calmly to angry callers on his radio show, knew exactly how to deal with it.
An unflappable Pence benefited from the contrast and won the night -- with 48% of those who watched it saying he had the best night, compared to 42% saying Kaine won, per a CNN/ORC poll of debate viewers.

But Kaine gets in hits against Trump
Kaine was determined to spend the night throwing out as many of Trump's controversial and incendiary remarks as possible, hoping that some would sink in for the large audience watching Tuesday night.
And at the same time Pence was accusing Clinton and Kaine of running an "insult-driven campaign," Trump was on Twitter, attacking Fox News host Megyn Kelly and retweeting supporters who said Kaine looked like a "fool" and an "evil crook out of the Batman movies."

Who won the vice presidential debate?
Kaine spent much of the debate lobbing Trump's own words at Pence.
At one point, Kaine accused Trump of "shooting himself in the foot" by attacking a Latina former Miss Universe; claiming to know more than the generals about fighting ISIS; trash-talking Sen. John McCain's military service; supporting a "personal Mount Rushmore" of dictators and believing "the world will be safer if more nations have nuclear weapons."
Trump had indeed said those things.
Pence deflected, saying Kaine's attack had "a lot of creative lines in it."
And Kaine shot back: "See if you can defend any of it."

Pence freelances on Trump's foreign policy agenda
The vice presidential nominee split -- sometimes in big ways -- from the top of his own ticket.
The most glaring example: Russia.

Fact-checking the VP debate
Pence called Vladimir Putin a "small and bullying" leader -- and denied that Trump has praised Putin, even though Trump has offered kind words about the Russian president throughout the entire campaign, repeatedly labeling him a "strong leader."
Kaine also reminded Pence that he praised Putin as well. Pence told CNN's Dana Bash last month that it was "inarguable" that Putin is a stronger leader than President Barack Obama.
Pence goes further than Trump on Syria military action
He also suggested the United States "should be prepared to use military force" against the Syrian government if Russia doesn't stop supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Pence also said that "what America ought to do right now is to immediately establish safe zones" to protect Syrian refugees -- a departure from Trump, who has praised the idea of safe zones but put the burden on Middle Eastern countries to establish and maintain them.
The major policy splits between Trump and Pence pose a series of new questions about their foreign policy that could dominate the next week -- and become the most important result of the vice presidential debate.

Pence didn't take the bait
Pence displayed a discipline that Trump did not in the first presidential debate: He didn't take the bait.
When Kaine threw a litany of attacks on Trump in Pence's direction, Pence often scoffed, batted them away and moved on -- never addressing them directly, never helping Kaine to make Trump's most incendiary words sink in. And always turning the conversation back to Clinton