Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, summed up last night’s debate perfectly; Tim Kaine was “planned and canned” while Mike Pence was “like a glass of southern sweet tea.”
Kaine spent most of the night interrupting Pence, hurling attacks at Trump’s character, and cramming in as many sound bites as possible. He didn’t debate, he recited a script.
Pence, on the other hand, spent the night trying to converse with his opponent. He was natural and spontaneous; he reacted to what Kaine and the moderator had to say. Pence may not have had a script, but he definitely cast some great lines.
1. “There’s a reason why people question the trustworthiness of Hillary Clinton. And that's because they're paying attention.”
Kaine was asked why 60 percent of voters think Hillary’s untrustworthy. Pence had a simple answer.
2. “Senator do you take all the deductions that you're entitled to?…I do.”
Kaine went on a rant about how it must be “smart” to not pay for our military, our veterans, or our teachers, because Trump said he was smart for paying as little tax as legally possible. Pence pointed out that no one is going to pay more taxes than they have to.
3. “At the risk of agreeing with you, community policing is a great idea.”
The candidates were asked whether or not the country asks too much of police. Kaine mentioned that we need more community policing. Pence wasn’t afraid to agree.
4. “Did you work on that one a long time? Because that had a lot of really creative lines in it.”
After Kaine gave a rather long speech about Trump admiring dictators, having a personal Mount Rushmore of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Moammar Gadhafi and Saddam Hussein, and wanting more nations to have nukes, Pence only had one question.
5. “We could put cyber security first if we just make sure the next secretary of state doesn't have a private server.”
Pence couldn’t resist bringing up cyber security. Elaine Quijano, the moderator, tried to change the subject, but Pence had to get in one last comment.