As the vice-presidential debate began Tuesday night at CBS News studios, there was a strange feeling that grew stronger over the course of 90 minutes of extensive political discussion: Was the United States in danger of regaining its sanity?

After weeks and months of grappling with Donald Trump's dystopian invocation of a country on the brink of self-destruction, reinforced by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' dire warnings of an endangered democracy, here was something very different. The two vice presidential candidates embraced America's most endangered political species: unity.

“Tim, I actually think I agree with you,” JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, told his counterpart Tim Walz during the immigration discussion.

“A lot of what the senator just said, I agree with him,” said Walz, the Minnesota governor and Democratic candidate, as they turned to trade policy.

Of course that wasn't true. The two men were no closer to an agreement than their bosses, who showed in their own presidential debate last month that they are worlds apart.

But on Tuesday, it was as if the CBS News studio in midtown Manhattan had been transported back to a prelapsarian time – or at least to the time before Maga. A time when politicians could be polite and in order to get ahead you didn't have to castigate your opponent as an enemy of the people.

For Vance, the metamorphosis was particularly striking. After all, he is the candidate for architect of “American carnage.”

For his part, the senator from Ohio has spread malicious falsehoods about legally residing Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and eating people's cats and dogs. Not to mention he's the “childless cat lady” type.

An unrecognizable Vance appeared on the New York stage. He listened respectfully to his debate partner, spoke in complete and largely measured sentences and even went so far as to admit his own fallibility – three qualities that the former president rarely emulates.

Vance may have had reason to present himself differently than Trump. At 40, unlike Trump at 78, he has to think about the future – his own future.

But his affable demeanor was also affected. When it came to the content of his statements, the Republican vice presidential candidate was just as economical with the truth as his boss.

In fact, he lied with abandon. He just did it with a silken tongue.

He talked about the vice president presiding over an “open border” with Mexico when the number of people crossing the border is actually at its lowest level in four years. He claimed he didn't support a national abortion ban — oh yes, he did, repeatedly during his 2022 senatorial run.

Regarding the Middle East crisis, he accused the “Kamala Harris government” of handing over $100 billion to Iran in the form of unfrozen assets – that is not true. It was worth $55 billion and was negotiated under Barack Obama.

Perhaps most egregious of all, Trump “saved” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obama’s wildly popular health insurance system, commonly known as Obamacare. “Saved” was an interesting choice of words for Trump, who tried to destroy the ACA 60 times without offering an alternative.

But it would have taken an attentive observer to see through Vance's soft demeanor toward the lies he spread. The former tech investor and best-selling author of Hillbilly Elegy was comfortable on stage and in his own skin, presenting himself as the sensible Trump, a MAGA lion in sheep's clothing.

In contrast, Walz had moments when he seemed tense and uneasy; the pre-debate nerves reported by CNN seemed real. As Vance beamed his piercing blue eyes directly into the camera, the Minnesota governor frequently glanced at his notes.

The folksy, fearsome “Coach Walz,” who has taken the United States by storm since he was plucked from Minnesota obscurity to become Harris' vice president, was largely absent.

He occasionally stumbled and garbled his words to indicate that he had become “friends” with school shooters rather than the families of their victims. And he incorrectly answered the question about why he falsely claimed to have visited China during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, woodenly trying to avoid the subject by describing himself as a “knucklehead.”

But when push came to shove, Walz came through. On the issues that matter most to Harris in her bid to become the first female president and the first woman of color in the Oval Office, he hit Vance hard – politely, but hard.

On the issue of abortion, he followed his vice president's lead and spoke movingly about the personal impact of Trump's effective gutting of Roe v. Wade. He invoked the story of Amber Thurman, who died while traveling from Georgia to North Carolina in search of reproductive care.

This even earned the staunch abortion opponent Vance one of the most surprising “I agree” remarks of the night: “Governor, I agree with you, Amber Thurman should still be alive…and I certainly wish she was.”

There was only one point in the evening when the kid gloves came off, and the gentility on display was rejected by both parties. It came as Vance had the audacity to claim – of course, of course – that Harris' attempts to “censor” misinformation in public discourse posed a far greater threat to democracy than Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election on January 6th tilt.

“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance deflected when Walz asked him directly if Trump had lost this contest. “That’s a damn non-answer,” the Democrat shot back, his face contorted in pain.

Ultimately, both men only played the role of sidekicks. They may have raised hopes that civility could return to U.S. politics, but let Trump have the final say.

“Walz was a low-IQ disaster — much like Kamala,” Trump wrote on his website Truth Social shortly after the debate ended. And just like that, everything was as usual.