I didn’t watch much of it, because really, who cares? What I saw during those brief intervals was a battle between an essentially genial but overly amped attack poodle and a smarmy, condescending guy who completely disregarded the moderator’s questions and repeatedly lied about his running mate’s positions.
It would appear that America found the smarmy, condescending guy to be more compelling, which doesn’t surprise me, because lying can be an extremely effective debate tactic. It certainly worked for Mitt Romney when he talked about his tax cut plan in 2012.
The bottom line is that, no, Donald Trump isn’t just a slightly more coarse and unpolished version of Mike Pence. America can draw its own conclusions; we don’t need to take Pence’s word for it.