It is widely believed that GOP vice presidential nominee Governor Mike Pence of Indiana won the one and only vice presidential debate of the season Tuesday night. After all, he was calm and smooth in the face of attack after attack from his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. However, there s just one VERY BIG problem there: Pence flat-out lied throughout the debate. Well, this is likely something that people are just casual, general election political observers don t know. But, certainly pundits and political nerds knew this right away, and the non-partisan fact-checking operation Politifact was ready to call Pence out on his many, many lies. Here are just a few highlights:Pence:  Hillary Clinton failed to renegotiate a status of forces agreement. We rated this claim Mostly False. In 2011, the Obama administration was negotiating with the Iraqi government to give American troops immunity prosecution by Iraqis   a touchy political issue.There s debate on whether the Americans could have worked out a deal, but Pence is wrong to suggest Clinton is to blame. The key decisions and discussions took place between the White House itself and Iraqi leaders.Pence:  They want to expand (Obamacare) into a single-payer program. Clinton and Kaine have proposed a public option   a government-sponsored insurance plan   but they have not proposed single-payer. Clinton has consistently resisted going in that direction and instead proposes to work to prevent the repeal of Obamacare and try to improve on it.Pence s claim is Mostly False.Pence: Donald Trump  never said that  more nations should get nuclear weapons.Mostly False. Trump has said some countries, namely Japan and South Korea, might be  better off  if they were to develop nuclear weapons, given their proximity to North Korea. However, he has also said   often in the same interview   that he opposes nuclear proliferation in general.Pence:  We delivered $400 million in cash as a ransom payment for Americans held by the radical mullahs in Tehran.This  ransom  line, which we ve previously heard from Trump, is Mostly False. Iran received the payment on the same day that American prisoners were released, but experts said this was not ransom. The United States owed Iran the money as part of a decades-long financial dispute.Pence:  Less than 10 cents on the dollar in the Clinton Foundation has gone to charitable causes. This is a repeated Republican talking point and it s inaccurate. While it s true that the foundation gives away in grants a small fraction of its resources, about 87 percent of its expenses go toward services it provides directly.And that s just a few. The entire analysis of the truthfulness of the vice presidential candidates  claims can be found here at Politifact.Overall, Mike Pence had to walk a very difficult tight rope Tuesday night. While he might have won when it comes to a calm, cool style, he failed miserably on substance. Perhaps that is because when it comes down to it, his running mate is a racist, misogynist, pathological liar and a dangerous demagogue who should never be anywhere near the Oval Office. To that end, Pence s strategy seemed to be to insist that the more outrageous things that Donald Trump has said throughout this horrific travesty of a presidential campaign aren t true, and to run away from clearly indefensible positions. Or maybe he s just drank the Kool-Aid they regularly serve up at Trump Tower, and actually thinks he is telling the truth and being reasonable.Either way, it s insanity. Thank goodness for fact-checkers to help set the American people straight in this nightmare of a presidential election season.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images