It was a sparky debate, and although Kaine launched a heavy attack, Pence emerged the victor, writes RTÉ’s Washington Correspondent Caitríona Perry.
It was expected to be substantive but dull; a chance for the running mates to debate the policy proposals that were missing from last week’s Trump-Clinton debate.
However both Vice Presidential candidates came out swinging, and each landed quite a few blows.
Aides said Democratic candidate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine had been studying "folders" of speeches from both Donald Trump and Mike Pence and he had several well-rehearsed attacks ready to roll.
He repeatedly called on Republican Governor of Indiana Mike Pence to defend the more controversial statements that Trump has made about immigrants and women, and to defend his approach to paying taxes.
Pence for his part bobbed and weaved and managed to argue back with Kaine without actually defending many of the allegations lobbed against him.
The job of Vice Presidential candidates in this one debate outing they have, is to defend their running mate and attack their opponent, and both Pence and Kaine did that in roughly equal measure here.
The difference however was in tone. Where Kaine was aggressive and interrupted Pence repeatedly, Pence retained a calm and serious veneer and deflected with skill. Never getting drawn into the quagmire of Trumpisms when he didn’t want to, and embracing it wholeheartedly when he did.
According to Republican strategist Sean Spicer, Tim Kaine interrupted Mike Pence 67 times, and that would no doubt have become quite annoying to the television viewer at home.
Both candidates also talked over each other often, and even at times shouted over the moderator’s attempts to quiet them, who herself lost control of proceedings on occasion.
Both men showed themselves as being well able to argue though, with quick retorts, and well-thought out debate points.
Mike Pence delivered a strong, structured take-down of Hillary Clinton’s record - and that of President Barack Obama, forcing Tim Kaine to defend and explain it - something Donald Trump had failed to do.
The Indiana Governor differed too from his running mate in how he handled taunts, and he may have some pointers on this for Donald Trump ahead of Sunday’s rematch with Clinton.
When Tim Kaine poked Mike Pence, as he did repeatedly, Pence did not lose control, shout and point his finger and waver off topic as Trump had done, but rather he issued pithy retorts, and then proceeded to calmly reject the claims.
One particularly withering exchange came when Tim Kaine accused Donald Trump of not being able to "start a Twitter war with Miss Universe without shooting himself in the foot", having a "secret plan" to defeat ISIS, and having a "kind of a personal Mount Rushmore, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein".
Mike Pence responded, off-the-cuff "Did you work on that one a long time? Because that had a lot of really creative lines in it."
One distinct difference between Mike Pence and Donald Trump came in relation to Vladimir Putin. On two occasions, Governor Pence referred to him as the "small and bullying leader of Russia", quite a difference to the complementary references Donald Trump often uses.
While Senator Tim Kaine clearly was well-rehearsed when it came to content, and he called Mike Pence out more successfully than the Republican managed in return, Kaine’s style and argumentative delivery was such that he seemed to be permanently on the back foot.
Mike Pence handled the attacks more calmly, with an almost dismissive tone at times, while maintaining a natural statesmanlike, or "Presidential" aura that his running mate so craves.
It’s an approach that would serve Donald Trump well to adopt when he faces Hillary Clinton for the second of their three debates on Sunday.
