You really can't compare Kerry's race and the Warren/Brown race because we're talking about a post Citizens United timeframe and the prevalence of attack ads, which tend to be the rule rather than the exception. Sometimes policy stuff is boring. I applaud the candidates for what they are doing. Thank you very much but I don't need lots of Exorcist music played over a dark grainy image to associate with the candidates. Fortunately we don't live in Idiocracy yet.

Well aren't you lazy Joanna. I thought it was the job of journalism to ferret out the positions of candidates and see if their claims hold water. People still read and listen. Over half of Massachusetts is college educated and we have the number one public educational system in the country. You want to hand over the responsibility to the irresponsible? This dust up over Prof Warren's background signifying nothing was considered news worthy both by the Globe and the Herald. The candidates position on taxes, economic life, health care, foreign policy, the Supreme Court, civil rights, crime, substance abuse, and anything else I left out is missing in action. You guys fall down on your duties and think the Super Pacs will clear things up? So the cat is out of the bag. You are a vote for yellow journalism. Shame on you.

"......we need something, someone, to force the campaigns off-message, start some new storylines. If that someone happens to be Sheldon Adelson, so be it"........***Interesting that you would choose Adelson to break the monotony. ***********I would have chosen Erin Hill, Executive Director of ACTBLUE---ActBlue is a non-profit political committee that supports Democratic candidates and committees across the country at every level of politics. Since 2004, we have become the nation's LARGEST SOURCE OF FUNDS for Democrats(taken from their page).

"Around here he's just called 'Dad'." I hope that ad wins some kind of award. I mean, it's really raised the level of discourse, huh? "The middle class is getting hammered." Over and over again, apparently. Hey, both campaigns have tons and tons of money. We don't need the SuperPACs to chime in, with their junk.

*******Pre- Citizens United we had AFL-CIO, SEIU, American Federation of Teachers, IBEW, UAW, TEAMSTERS, UAW, AFSCME, and United Steel Workers--- to name a VERY FEW. These organizations had money they coerced from members, in the form of dues that HAD TO BE PAID, that they used any way they wanted. NO MEMBER WAS EVER CONSULTED AS TO WHICH CANDIDATE WOULD BE SUPPORTED. Massachusetts is NOT a "RIGHT TO WORK STATE.******

Shame on Joanna Weiss for using her media bully pulpit to trivialize the Senate contest. Apparently Weiss feels the Globe's readers are intelligent enough to research the candidates on their own, without a Sheldon Adelson to tell us all their flaws. Careful, Ms. Weiss, or we may all have to suffer through the negative advertising deluge you wish for as a bored reporter.

Let me tell you what I remember most vividly from the Romney/Kennedy race in 1994. It concerns one of the most impressive politicians I have ever met; George Romney (not is pretty boy son, Newt Romney). George spoke for his son at a candidates night in Nahant. He was in his mid 80's, a big, strong, tanned and fit man with an iron handshake, burdened by two things. First, he had to carry around a dense head of hair that must have weighed a ton. Secondly, he had to carry around a dense son who was actually a light-weight. George spoke that night about working for Senator David Walsh in Boston back in the 1920s. He contrasted the substantive speeches that candidates made in that period, where the transcript would appear in the following day's papers and would be scrutinized, paragraph by paragraph, by the newspaper reading public. His comparison to the present day's 30 second attack ad environment was, shall we say, unfavorable to the current era. I remember what happened to George Romney in 1968. There was an infelicitous use of the word "brainwash" by candidate George Romney. The Joanna Weiss types of that day jumped all over him and they were probably proud of themselves. Perhaps if he had said that he was "systematically mislead" by the military in Vietnam instead of "brainwashed," history would have been different. I listened to some of the Weiss/Rooney conversation on WGBH last week. What an embarrassment. Two women playing a kind of cynical gossipy mean girl act. Whew! Exactly what kind of person is it that cheers for distortion, dissembling and lies?

I belong to SEIU and the money they take for political purposes is pennies. I suppose it helps that I agree with their political positions but of I didn't, I could certainly raise my voice and be heard. The term "right to work" is a dishonest misnomer. The number one factor correlating with middle class stability and growth is the existence of unions. The dues I pay are for contract negations which are well worth the money, trust me.

That should read contract negotiations LOL!

ummm.. NHCabin. You understand that ActBlue doesn't donate any of the money itself. They are just a website through which Democrats can donate to the candidate of their choice. Erin Hill isn't writing a $10M check. She isn't writing any check at all, in fact. But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant.

Don't you think it would be more honest to admit that super pac ads would be a wonderful thing for the bottom line of your company? I am glad we don't have them. As for the rest, there are plenty of issues that Elizabeth Warren is campaigning on. Scott Brown campaigns on none. That's his problem. Massive spending on super PAC ads would not cure what he has or improve his obvious emotional and mental deficits.

Joanna wrote: I know what you're saying: Drawing out the issues is the media's job. Well, I'll let you in on a secret: The media have a history of covering issues, too — articles outlining the candidates' positions, helpful charts, comparison websites, nifty infographics. I've written a fair amount of these myself over the years. Perhaps you don't remember them because you fell asleep somewhere in the middle. Not true. Most of us have been thoroughly disgusted by media treatment of non-issues, like ancestry and meetings with royalty. I think it is more of a "smarts" thing: no one wants to dig for the info on important issues because those writers do not understand the issues themselves and gaining the information is useless if one does not know how to interpret it. So the media takes the simplistic and makes it sensational. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren are night and day. It's time some incisive stuff is written about their differences.