Second Brown vs. Warren Debate Was a Draw in an Unfair Setting

I’m calling this one a draw for reasons which I list below. Everything was stacked against Brown in this debate yet he still held his own.

1. Liberal moderator. While David Gregory put Warren in her place one time during the entire hour long debate, he constantly interrupted Brown’s responses. One got a sense that Brown was on trial with David Gregory as judge and Elizabeth Warren as his main witness.

I will never understand why Republicans always agree to debates moderated by journalists who are known far and wide as liberal partisans. David Gregory did not impress as an impartial moderator. He phrased an early question to Brown in such a way that suggested Brown is a liar. He never once asked about Elizabeth Warren’s lack of a Massachusetts law license.

2. Liberal audience. This debate took place at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell with tons of UMASS Lowell students in the audience. You would be hard pressed to find a more liberal college campus than any chapter of the University of Massachusetts. Lowell in particular is a city filled with immigrant families, many of which are first generation illegal immigrants or “undocumented” as the PC crowd likes to say.

You may have noticed that when two students from UMASS Lowell were able to ask questions, the first one wanted to know how the government could help her get a job and the second one wanted to know the candidates’ respective stances on the DREAM Act. No surprises there.

3. Takers Vs. Makers. Brown continually cited his support for job creators and tax payers. How many of them were in the audience? I’d guess they were outnumbered by students and state workers. Every time Elizabeth Warren talked about job creation she cited teachers, cops, firefighters and public works people, in other words people who make their living off tax payers. It’s the same argument Obama always makes because like Obama, Warren has never run a business or met a payroll.

In their closing remarks, each candidate was asked to say something positive about the other. Brown said that Warren is a good professor and that he’s trying to make sure she keeps her teaching job which elicited laughs from the audience.

For the second debate in a row, Elizabeth Warren failed to thank Scott Brown for his service to America which I find incredibly tone deaf and offensive. She instead took the blah route and said he has a nice family. Warren also went out of her way to demonize millionaires and billionaires for the trillionth time. Yawn.

Conclusion: This debate was fought on Elizabeth Warren’s home court with a friendly ref yet both candidates received multiple applause breaks. Had the setting been fair I would call it another hands down win for Brown.

Brown held his own in hostile territory, we have yet to see if Warren could do the same.

UPDATE: Read William Jacobson’s analysis here.

UPDATE II: Hot Air readers weigh in here.

UPDATE III: Boston Herald readers didn’t think it was a draw.

UPDATE IV: FULL VIDEO