Debate Wrap-Up

Tonight’s webcast debate among the three Senate candidates just concluded. Some random thoughts about each of the participants:

Libertarian Joseph L. Kennedy deserves credit for being the only candidate to talk about freedom and to argue that there are some issues (in this case single parenthood) that Washington should stay out of.

Democrat Martha Coakley boasted twice that under her leadership the Attorney General's office brought in five times more money in fines and settlements than it spent. The notion that law enforcement should be operated for profit is truly frightening and invokes images of roving police gangs shaking down the citizenry.

Republican Scott Brown did an excellent job of staying on message: low taxes are a necessary condition for a thriving economy. “We can not continue to tax and spend and expect people to have money,” he said. However, as a 29-year veteran of the National Guard, it was in the area of military policy that he really distinguished himself. When, the other two candidates expressed their opposition to the President's surge in Afghanistan on the grounds that the mission there is unclear, Mr. Brown explained that it is very clear: to ensure that the Taliban and al-Qaeda do not regain a stronghold there which they could use as a base for expansion into nuclear-armed Pakistan and for terrorist attacks against the rest of the world.

The debate will appear on broadcast TV Sunday night at 8 PM.