ANVILLE, Ky. - They were auditioning for best supporting actor, and in their star turns on the political stage last night, the vice presidential nominees all but whispered their lines. But the differences between them - and the tickets they represent - might as easily have been shouts.
Former defense secretary Dick Cheney of Wyoming and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut didn't raise their voices at all and clashed only gently. But - more effectively than the presidential candidates who held their first debate in Boston Tuesday night - they came out on different sides of the fundamental divide in every American election: change.
From the start, Cheney spoke of the ''old way of governing ourselves,'' described the Republican ticket's proposals as ''reforms'' and asserted that in recent years, in education at least, ''no progress'' has been made since the Democrats took over. He portrayed Governor George W. Bush of Texas as an agent of change with a home-state record to match..
From the start, Lieberman spoke of ''keeping prosperity going,'' described the Democratic ticket's blueprint as the surest way to continue the economic boom and defended the record of the Clinton administration. He portrayed Vice President Al Gore as the candidate for staying the present course.
On a leafy college campus in the middle of Kentucky bluegrass, the two vice presidential nominees pitched their remarks to the middle class (the phrase was repeated by both men) and women (the critical group of voters in this autumn's elections). But the most striking aspect of the 90 minutes was not the targets of the appeals but the clarity, spontaneity, and occasional humor with which the two men delivered their remarks.
That is all the more striking because vice presidential nominees traditionally appear not as stalwarts in support of their own views but, because they must bend their views to those of the presidential nominees, as surrogates for the presidential candidates and adamant defenders of them.
Throughout the evening Lieberman was less pulsating, urgent, exasperated and aggressive than Gore was only 48 hours earlier. There were no grunts, no expressions of impatient disbelief. At the same time, Cheney was more steady, fluent, consistent and confident than Bush had been at the forum at the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts. There was no stammering, no struggling for prepared lines.
Indeed, one of the principal contrasts that emerged last night was not between the Democratic and the Republican tickets but between the two presidential nominees and their running mates.
The difference between the presidential nominees, whose anxiety made the earlier contest almost as exhausting for the viewers as for the participants, and the vice presidential nominees, whose relaxed manner made the session seem ever so much more accessible, was much like the difference between Debussy and Bartok.
With its lower volume and less pugilistic air, last night's session offered insights into the two men who would be vice president - a job that, since 1977, has become far more visible even for those who did not eventually succeed to the Oval Office.
Lieberman was a vigilant defender of the Democratic administration, whether the issue was Middle East policy or abortion, and asserted himself firmly but not patronizingly from the very opening of the session. And Cheney was a credible challenger to the status quo and in some areas, particularly military policy, which he oversaw in the Pentagon in President Bush's administration, was able to speak from a position of strength.
In fact, if last night's session showed anything - besides, of course, the frustrations inherent in television sessions that are called debates but more accurately are discussions - it was the degree to which personality can drown issue differences. Tuesday night's session was about issues but was clouded by the presidential candidates' idiosyncrasies. Last night's session was about issues too - but personalities didn't get in the way.
