The video: California senatorial candidates Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina went head-to-head Wednesday night in the first televised debate of the campaign season. (Watch a clip below.) During the "contentious" one-hour exchange, Boxer repeatedly attacked Fiorina on both her record as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, where she fired 30,000 U.S. workers, and her support of tax policies that Boxer says favor the very-rich. Fiorina fought back, painting Boxer as a ineffective Washington insider who'd failed to create jobs in the struggling state.
The reaction: "This was a hard-hitting debate," political analyst Jessica Levinson tells the Christian Science Monitor. But "not a particularly spontaneous one." Overall, "it seemed less like an exchange of ideas, and more like an exchange of talking points." If you ask me, says Brian Joseph in The Orange County Register, the debate was "a let down." Without "any major gaffs or even memorable moments," it's nearly impossible to declare either candidate the winner. Watch a clip from the Boxer-Fiorina debate below: