Brown vs. Warren, Round Three: A Good Night for the Professor
WED OCTOBER 10, 2012
The US Senate debate that just wrapped up in Springfield bore a striking resemblance to the presidential debate that took place last week. Elizabeth Warren was energetic, aggressive, and dictated the terms from the outset — just like Mitt Romney. And Scott Brown seemed simultaneously lethargic and peevish — much like Barack Obama. (Brown wasn't quite as bad as Obama, who seemed genuinely not to want his current job. But for much of the evening, he was pretty close.)
One exchange in particular defined the night. Touting his record on women's issues, Scott Brown identified himself as pro-choice, referenced his wife and daughters, and said (as he had in the first debate) that he'd been fighting for women since he was six — a reference to his defense of his mother from an abusive boyfriend at that tender age. Warren responded, in essence: I believe Scott Brown is a good father and a good husband. But every time he's had a chance to cast a single, defining vote on issues involving women — whether it's abortion rights or equal pay — he's voted the wrong way. My paraphrased recap really doesn't do justice to the power of Warren's riposte; after she delivered it, Brown looked both disoriented and demoralized.
Also noteworthy: by my count, it took Brown more than half an hour to tout his own record of bipartisanship, which is far and away his greatest political asset. He came back to that theme in his closing statement, noting that he actually votes across the aisle far more than Dick Lugar — whom Warren had identified, in the previous debate, as a Republican senator she'd be able to work well with. Taken in isolation, Brown's Lugar line was a winner. But it should have been delivered far, far earlier.
By the same token, when Brown jabbed at Warren's past litigation for some questionable clients early on, Warren simply brushed Brown's attacks away. In the past few weeks, Warren has struggled mightily to explain, in terms comprehensible to ordinary people, why her work for Traveler's Insurance and LTV Steel was morally sound. I had wondered if she'd fare better tonight. As it turned out, she didn't have to, because Brown simply couldn't make the subject stick.
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