Good morning. What was that? Who were those two guys keeping me awake?

I tuned in, as political junkies do, and lost sleep to watch JD Vance and Timothy Walz throw punches at each other.

I must say that I wasn’t surprised the morning after to learn how few of you stayed up with me to watch the backup guys throw a few punches and look barely ready to go to the big “prom.”

The usual “backup” faces (always barely known to the weary public) seem to many to be “understudies” pulled out of the shadows, to be “ready” to “go on” in case the “stars” are hit by fate’s fickle hand.

History has shown us how wrong that picture is.

VPs are rarely camera ready. Basically they’re picked to sit in the big office next to the winners in all the photo ops. They’re like the best man at the wedding or, as in Nixon’s choice, Gerald Ford, the head usher.

We’re lucky that Joe Biden, a great president looking pale at this year’s end, picked Kamala Harris, who, it turns out, has star quality.

Ordinarily, we don’t see or hear about the backup duos until the Big Guy dies or runs out his term or, like Tricky Dick, resigns.

Oh yeah! The debate. Did we hear any debating? I saw what appeared to be two college guys from different fraternity houses going at each other before the big game.

We saw the very earnest Tim Walz taking notes like he was in class. Not good. But we do know by now that Tim has pretty good Democratic credentials to back up Kamala Harris to defeat The Donald and run the country.

He has served since 2019 as the 41st governor of Minnesota, and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives AND the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. All good. All that came from making notes.

We came to this night having watched candidate Kamala Harris, with a smile, grab Donald Trump by his lapels, drag him across the screen, beat his wounded ear back and leave him virtually speechless.

Then we were reintroduced to JD Vance, chosen to give “class” to the ticket.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but what I saw was (in my opinion) the “Devil’s Advocate,” a younger, thinner guy with a neat beard and his “father’s eyes,” more hair, no golf slacks or makeup, following Trump, who — after five unchecked lies — made up a story about Haitians eating house pets like Cheerios. How’s that for losing the votes of millions of pet owners?

At Harris’s Democratic Convention, we watched her choose the happy faced man of the people, the All American Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, school teacher, member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2017 to 2019. Bingo.

Am I misled perhaps to see, in Kamala’s eyes, a much younger version of her old boss Joe Biden? With white hair, but a younger, 60-year-old happy family man who owns a closet of plaid shirts. Bingo!

For this old Hollywood voter, Tim Walz happily reminds me of a grown up Andy Hardy/Mickey Rooney, or Jimmy Stewart, stumbling through the first half of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Remember how that turned out? Sign me up.

J.P. Devine is a Waterville writer.