FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In the end, it was a contest, but not much of one. Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Scott Brown handily, and with a lot of time to spare on what promises to be a long evening. She won because, in the end, she was a superior candidate who ran a superior race. In 2010, Senator McDreamy picked up a 7-10 split. He won a freak election against a terrible opponent in which he ran a superb campaign. It's hard to remember now, because of the clumsy, angry campaign he ran for re-election, but he went through the 2010 campaign without a single mistake. His commercials were terrific, his persona likable. He was terrific in the debates, and he was tremendously focused every time Martha Coakley, his hapless opponent, made a mistake, large or small, and she made a lot of them. He won that seat as squarely as it ever was won by Ted Kennedy.

But this time, he found himself up against someone who had a bit of history on her shoulder. There will be a lot of talk in the coming days about how Warren managed to hang the national Republican party around Brown's neck, and she did. But, more to the point, she ran as though she already knows what kind of a senator she wants to be. She ran as though she knew exactly the kind of hell she plans to raise down there. She ran as though she had some kind of idea of how to fill out a great office. For his part, in an almost perfect counterpoint, Brown made himself look small. He made himself look cheap. He ran a campaign of tawdry invective and unfunny laff-lines. Part of electing a senator is sizing people up to the dimensions of the office. Only one of these candidates could win by that metric, and the right one did.

To me, the most revelatory moment came in the last of their debates, when Warren, asked about the war in Afghanistan, said simply,"It's time to get out now." No qualifications. No relying on the generals. No crawfishing. Out. Now. A few weeks later, I was riding around with her and I told her that, as far as I knew, she was the only Democratic candidate in a contested race who has said that simple thing as plainly as she did. She popped her eyes at me in the way that she does.

"There was no other answer," she said, as though being asked to explain why she had come to start breathing that morning. Oh, dear Jesus, she's going to cause so many people so much trouble down there. She can fill that office right up to the ceiling.

FURTHER READING: The Elizabeth Warren Q&A and the Massachusetts Senate Trail >>

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ELECTION-NIGHT RESULTS ON THE POLITICS BLOG...

• THE SPEECH: Tom Junod on the Transformation in Chicago

• THE PRESIDENCY: Charles P. Pierce on the Greatness of Barack Obama

• THE VIEW FROM OHIO: Mark Warren on the Worst Victory Party in America

• THE VIEW FROM TWITTER: Stephen Marche on How Math (and Obama) Won

• MASSACHUSETTS:

ELECTION DAY ON THE POLITICS BLOG, FROM EVERY SWING STATE...

• FLORIDA: Charles P. Pierce with the Voting-Rights Watchdogs

• OHIO: Mark Warren Traveling with Governor John Kasich (and with Romney)

• NEW HAMPSHIRE: Margaret Doris in 5-Vote Territory (and with Romney)

• VIRGINIA: Elizabeth Sile on Voter-ID in New Blue County

• NEVADA: Jason Whithed Searching for Sheldon Adelson

• WISCONSIN: Joe Tarr on the Voter Fraud That Wasn't

• NORTH CAROLINA: Aaron Gwyn on the Independent's Indecision

• IOWA: Kyle Minor on the Easy Magic of the Battleground

• COLORADO: Sam Levin at the Last Defeat Party (and with Obama and Romney)

• ...AND PENNSYLVANIA: Isaiah Thompson on the Blue State That Would Be Red

PLUS: John H. Richardson in Breezy Point with Sandy Victims Voting

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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