Scott Brown: A False Moderate

By Sarah Betancourt

Polls for Wednesday night’s debate will cement the perception of voters, but from my watch, it looked like Elizabeth Warren nailed it. Brown, who listed Justice Scalia as his favorite Supreme Court justice previously to the ire of moderates, tried to steer a path down the center of voter opinion. He failed to do so the second he mentioned Grover Norquist, and by reiterating the now infamous Medicare cut statement being floated by the Romney campaign.

However, Elizabeth Warren did not allow for miseducation. She accurately portrayed Brown as the poster child of the national GOP agenda, particularly on the topics of foreign policy and taxes.  She reminded the audience of Brown’s intent on voting against Obamacare from before day one, as mentioned in his questionaire with AmericansElect.org.

When Brown turned to womens’ issues, Warren laid down his record as having voted against equal pay for women, pro-choice Justice Elena Kagan, and insurance coverage for birth control. Jim Madigan of WGBY-TV acted as Moderator, a refreshing improvement from David Gregory, who asked irrelevant questions concerning Warren’s heritage in the last debate on October 1st.

By: Sarah Betancourt

Sarah Betancourt is a Boston-based journalist who has written for In These Times, Open Media Boston, Spare Change News, Boston.com, the Boston Globe Environment Blog, and has had work appear in video on the National Geographic Water Currents Blog. She writes primarily about Boston politics, labor, Generation Y issues, and environmental policy.