Mike Pence and Tim Kaine aren’t names that make voters envision glorious revolutions, regal speeches, rallying war cries or really, anything even remotely interesting. They seem like the kind of people who wear socks with sandals and only ever watch documentaries. If they were wanted criminals, they’d probably never be found because they’re just that boring.

But wow, did Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton pick the right running mates. 

For Trump, Pence was just the sort of calm, cool, and collected that Trump never was. His tone was measured, his posture was straight and his face was impenetrable all throughout the debate. Although, he was put on the spot several times, from Trump’s “Mexicans are racist” comments to his latest Miss Universe Twitter debacle, Pence, despite not ever truly answering, never sounded flustered. He also made a point to make conservatives happy with his stances on taxes, abortion and religion.

For Clinton, Kaine was the typical Vice Presidential attack dog that she needed. He said all the quips that she couldn’t say without facing intense scrutiny. On the topic of Trump going to war, Kaine struck: “Trump can’t start a Twitter war with Miss Universe without shooting himself in the foot,” he said. Overall, Kaine covered a wide span of topics and backed Pence into a corner on multiple occasions, and often more abruptly than Clinton could have ever gotten away with.

However, the debate still left something to be desired.

When Pence was confronted with several of Trump’s past comments, rather than trying to defend them, Pence either (a) denied they ever existed or (b) skipped past them altogether. Repetitive head-shaking was probably his biggest and most memorable rebuttal. His plans on foreign policyㅡdealing with Syria and Russia, most notablyㅡwas vague and rarely addressed the issues at hand.

Kaine, too, faced his own issuesㅡnot with his content, but instead with his attitude and general tone. Kaine was described as “annoying” by several commentators after the debate. His constant interruptions, speaking over moderator Elaine Quijano, and rapid-fire accusations left both Pence and the audience reeling. Kaine also came off as generally scripted, as he spent the past several days preparing for this debate. A few of his speeches sounded just a little too canned.

It’s true that both of these vice-presidential-hopefuls fade into the background compared to the dynamic personalities of Trump and Clinton. However, it’s also true that they were clearly chosen strategically and managed to balance out their own candidates. Despite many dubbing Pence the winner, neither man hurt his own candidate and, if anything, strengthened some key points in ways that were more palatable to voters.

It’s easy to skip watching the vice presidential debate. However, if nothing else, this debate showed us just why these running mates were chosen, despite their forgettable names.