Brown, always the bully, showed his condescending and rude character as he told Warren she was "not his professor." Moreover, he is still stuck in Cherokee nation, to which a polled electorate clearly shows it does not care about that. Elizabeth answered as completely as possible. At this point who the heck cares what part of her DNA imprint is Cherokee and which box she checked? Why doesn't Brown simply ask for a genetic sample!

When asked who his favorite Supreme Court Justice is his poorest response and one which Brown blew a hole as wide as the ocean in his candidacy was Scalia. He squirmed and figured this was NOT the right answer or it was the "right" answer in an electorate that is not rightwingnut so he then went to Kennedy and finally to Sotomayer! From Scalia to Sotomayer — two justices who could not be more philosophically further apart! It pegged him as one of the dumbest senators posing as someone who is supposed to be smart. He isn't. He is a bully who happens to throw his weight around and knows how to be a politician.

Elizabeth Warren was superb and, as usual, brilliant. I believe this is Scott Brown's Waterloo answer to a question that was simple. This floundering flub of a thug politician could not have answered it worse and it was an accurate reflection of his poor intellectual ability. He should and, hopefully, will be unseated in November.

What is being conveniently glossed over this morning is that the moderator actually brought up Warren's heritage last night. But of course, Warren isn't running against David Gregory, so it wouldn't be self-serving to degrade him for his attack on the Professor.

She has a very phony and disingenuous quality about her. We're supposed to trust her, but she keeps trotting out semantics about her heritage and whether or not she willingly self-identified for self gain, or if her employers used it to tout their diversity stats. Its very tough to think that someone who has made money flipping foreclosed houses, fighting for an insurance company's right to NOT pay victims, and makes $350K to teach ONE class in an industry she continuously bemoans the high cost of is actually fighting for the middle class.

Sounds to me like she's fought against the middle class for years, and that telling us she's our friend now is the most profitable direction to go in...........

For partisans, debates are like date night with their true love – they only see the deep coral blue of his or her eyes, and don’t notice the lasagna stains on the shirt.

Those people already know who they’re voting for. (Jon Keller)

For those of us on the fence.....well, after last night's debate, I'm STILL on the fence.

I tired of Betty's one trick pony....let's talk about issues........she has no problem with cuts to Social security...as long as they don't impact the beneficiary.....her tune is like the president who she wants to emulate...with those cuts hospitals will close programs,cut staff,lower physician payments will cause it to be harder to find a physician for seniors,providers again will stop services if payments are lowered..these cuts will have a direct impact on the beneficiaries PLEASE let her explain these cuts....whats her stand on immigration? illegals.....she is very quiet...or is she like the governor...give them everything and the feds will pay for it along with the MA taxpayers...let's vet her ideas...I'm tired of her one trick pony lower taxes for the wealth...last question when harvard run that piece about her in the Boston paper why didn't she correct it...again her integrity is in question

Mister BROWN won...period. Warren STILL hasn't learned the meaning of the word "honest".

I think Warren was the low woman on the totem pole last night.

Brown is on record saying his model Supreme Court Justice is Scalia. Some moderate.

Natalie.....my hero! ;) How can anyone NOT see exactly what you see...and feel when you watch and listen to S.Brown over the years...and now...you couldn't of been more clear and PRECISE in your description of him..'floundering flub of a thug politician'..I haven't been able to explain my impressions of him to others...as you have..thanks! ..and Bah! to the others...different character than us..:)

I saw Liz at a political fundraiser two months ago and listened with an open mind while she told a room full of lawyers how "unfair"it was that she did not have anyone to babysit her kids when SHE elected to go to law school. And how UNFAIR it was that no one wanted to hire her when she graduated because she had childcare needs. I am not sure why it is our job to pay for these things but Ms Warren's view is that we should pay and provide a big income to her. Who is supposed to pay for those kind of benefits? Please do not vote for this woman.
She is a menace

I wish Brown would stop pussyfooting around and really say what he needs to say. When the girl got up and asked about help for her job prospects when she graduated - Warren came in with the usual we need to build more roads, bridges, better schools....
Brown - what you needed to say was we've been doing that for years now already - if it was working then the girl shouldn't be worried about finding a job. Or better yet he should have asked the student how she thought making new jobs for building roads and bridges was going to get her a job with her degree - those jobs are mainly blue collar.
A new road or bridge is not going to create the next Staples, Genzyme, Bose - so lets stop making these jobs out of thin air - eventually you are going to reach a point that there won't be enough of us in the private sector to support those on the public dole. Brown - Ms. Warren wants to talk numbers - well talk numbers. How have all those bridge/road jobs turned into longtime job opportunities? They are all short-term solutions.
And - Brown move off the Indian debate - we get it - even your supporters would like to hear a new tune.

To Kim and other who might still be n the fence:

I think it might be helpful if you look at the the Massachusetts Senate race as a national race -- whether the Democrats or the Republicans control the Senate could hinge on the outcome.

I’ve read that this is the most expensive Senate race on the country. Warren and Brown did us a huge favor by agreeing to tell outside PAC’s to stay out of this contest. Karl Rove’s PAC has begun making robocalls in Massachusetts on Brown’s behalf; I expect one PAC or another will soon jump in on Warren’s side.

The U.S. Senate votes to confirm Supreme Court justices. I have read that, given the ages of the current justices, there could be at least two vacancies on the Court within the next four years. When asked, Brown said he favorite Supreme Court justice is Antonin Scalia. Scalia is a learned man, who as Jim O’Connor explained in another thread, “has said he was “adamantly opposed” to Roe v. Wade, opposes equal protection for women, opposes the right to contraception, doesn't believe we have a constitutional right to privacy...”

One could expect a Republican president to nominate and Republican Senate and Scott Brown to confirm appointees to the Court who would support Justice Scalia’s point of view. They would be under heavy pressure from the very conservative, right wing of their party to do so.

Clinton, and I believe Reagan, saw a great value in keeping the Court politically balanced. Chief Justice Roberts, a conservative, may have saved the Court from great scorn by seeing a way to find in favor of the Affordable Care Act. Had Affordable Care been overruled, following on the heels of the still controversial Citizens United decision, the Court could have suffered a considerable loss of trust. It is crucial to our system of governmental checks and balances that the Supreme Court be seen as above the political fray and impartial.

So the question comes before you: would you like to see additional conservative justices on the Court who would support the positions taken by Antonin Scalia?

I have focused on Brown and his conservative leanings because I think it is very clear where Elizabeth Warren stands. She is a liberal Democrat with all that implies.

The Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, which Elizabeth Warren helped create, penalized Capital One Bank $210 Million dollars last July for adding products & services to their customers credit cards under false pretenses. This week the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau penalized Discover Card $14 million dollars for charging customers for credit card services they never ordered. In addition to that fine, Discover must pay back $200 million to over three and one half million customers (Editorial, Boston Globe, 10/2/12).

These are the kinds of things that big business will do, and have done to us, their customers. Without Warren and the CPFB, we wouldn’t even know. And because we can’t trust big business to treat us honestly, we need another government agency to police them. The Republicans will defund the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau.

Yesterday, October 1, was the day that Medicare began fining hospitals for readmitting too many patients within 30 days of their discharge as provided for in the Affordable Care Act. This is part of the effort to increase the quality of care and reduce the cost of healthcare. The Republicans will repeal the Affordable Care Act. They claim they will replace it, but they can't say with what.

So Kim, I hope all this helps you decide which side of the fence you might like to be on.

Umm....unless I can't read Congressional Documents...Both Kerry AND Kennedy voted to confirm Justice Scalia.

http://www.loc.gov/law/find/nominations/scalia/vote.pdf

Brown and Warren both did no favors to their respective campaigns last night. Brown came off as snarky while Warren continued to look like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar on a variety of issues. Brown dodges questions while Warren retreats to glossed over sound-bites that contain almost zero real information. I am voting for Brown based on his voting record. I don't agree with all that he has to say, but anyone who is that open to working with the other party is someone I can get behind. I wish there were more senators with that type of voting record. Warren is probably a kind woman and a hard worker, but she is completely out of her element when it comes to running for a senate position. She is full of excuses, comes off as a liar even if she isn't lying, and has the backing of the big business companies she tries to say she is against. I cannot support that type of hypocrisy. Character matters to me greatly when voting, so Brown will get my vote on election day.

Warren lied about her heritage, and claimed to be a minority to get ahead in life, yeah, not somebody I'd want in office...

Scott Lehigh summed it this way:

"As for Brown, he once again tap-danced around the question of whether he would ever support any new revenue for deficit reduction. Nor did he give any real sense how the deficit should be tackled without it. By debate’s end, I found myself wishing that our junior senator considered issues about the nation’s fiscal future maybe a tenth as important as he does the matter of Warren’s undocumented ancestry."

The heritage debate is shameless! Who really thinks Elizabeth Warren needed affirmative action to get ahead? The same people who don't believe the president's birth records. She stood up against racist grandparents who denied her parents a normal wedding because of presumed Indian heritage. Denying indian heritage would have been siding with them against her parents.

It shameful to parade this day after day on my TV with commercials endorsed by Scott Brown. This is not about lying, its about having no shame!

Elizabeth Warren won.