However, vice presidential candidates seldom if ever decide the outcome of an election, Kaju told current affairs show "Ringvaade," though the performance by both figures was in any case relatively cordial and respectful, he added.

The debate, hosted by CBS, had many of the same features as September's between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump aired by ABC, including no studio audience, fact-checking and correction by the hosts, and a mic mute option – though the latter two aspects did not need to be deployed as much as they had been in the presidential candidate's face-off.

Kaju said that the vice-presidential debate still offered some up-to-date insights into the overall election campaign.

"For several months now, we have been seeing Donald Trump's campaign is quite different from what it was in 2020."

The extremes seem to have been sanded off, and not just on the Republican side.

"The 2024 campaign, from both sides, demonstrates the belief that the election will be won from the political center," Kaju argued.

Kaju also said that both vice presidential candidates were trying to project a sense of normalcy, both in terms of policies and of personalities – during the course of the debate, both candidates referenced the more down-home aspects of their backgrounds, Governor of Minnesota Walz 60, originally from Nebraska; Vance, 40, as has been well documented, from a poor background in southern Ohio – and now junior senator of that state.

"They are attempting to negotiate the radical policies; trying to communicate messages that will resonate with the average American. Yesterday's debate stood out in that both candidates tried to present themselves in an affable manner," Kaju went on.

All this made for a debate of a caliber that has not been seen in the U.S. in decades, he argued – which, with just over a month to go, speaks to a more even-handed final campaigning stretch after the dramas of the summer.

"This reflects the current tone and pace of the campaigns. Even though Trump still frequently manages to provoke outrage, his overall rhetoric has become more centrist," Kaju stated.

"Although JD Vance has been known to indulge in 'trolling' and has made some strange pronouncements in recent weeks, in the debate we saw a different Vance."

At the same time, it would not do to be too naive about the reasons for this, Kaju noted.

Candidates "act in ways they think will be politically advantageous at that point in time, based on their perception of voter expectations," he said.

There are take-homes for observers of domestic Estonian politics, too, Kaju continued.

"This serves as a lesson for us as well in how we assess our own politicians – they are capable of acting normally and discussing substantive policy issues," he said.

In any case, the approach worked for both Vance and Walz, he added, noting that both parties' supporters seem to have a higher opinion of their vice presidential candidates following the debate, an effect which may also be passed on to the presidential candidates.

However, there was a clear winner in Kaju's view, though the bar was lower from the outset for the Republican candidate than the Democratic one.

"When comparing Vance and Walz, it has to be stated that Vance did better. This is partly because expectations of him were lower, given that he's one of the most unpopular vice-presidential candidates in history. He surprised with his even-handed and substantive debate skills, yet Walz fell short."

"That said, there is no reason to believe this will have any major significant impact," Kaju cautioned.

Undecided voters typically do not follow debates very closely, while the U.S. president is seldom if ever chosen based on which vice-presidential candidate is the more likable.

"History shows that debates and the selection of vice-presidential candidates play a very small role," Kaju concluded.

Finally, as to who will win on November 5, Kaju said that the Harris/Walz ticket at the moment has a slight edge over the Trump/Vance one.

Harris is of course incumbent vice president and so is looking to repeat the feat Joe Biden managed just at the last election in 2020, by going from that role to the White House. This would make her the fifth person to do so.

The Walz-Vance debate was broadcast by CBS and covered many of the same topics the ABC presidential candidates debate did last month, including immigration, the southern border, the situation in the Middle East, which has moved on further in recent days and weeks, and the Hurricane Helene, which has hit Florida and the southeast and left over 100 dead.

Unlike the Harris v. Trump debate, Ukraine was not touched upon on Tuesday. Estonia didn't make it either, though Finland did – with reference to its high gun ownership and, in the candidates' view, low levels of gun violence for instance in high schools (in fact several lethal high school shootings have happened in Finland in recent years, most recently in April this year in which one student was killed – ed.).

Perhaps as a result of Vance's pointing it out early on, more on the candidates' backgrounds were in focus than with the presidential candidates, likely due to their relatively low profiles for most of the voting public up to now.

These background questions included those on the timing of Walz's visit to China in 1989, the year of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and Vance's apparent u-turn on Trump, going from saying at one point he could potentially be "America's Hitler," to becoming his running-mate.

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