Whiteboy gets the scoop:

... Patrick: "Hello?"

Mihos: "Is your refrigerator running?"

Patrick: "Yes, my refrigerator is running."

Mihos: "Well, I'M NOT anymore!" ...

'Derogatory' quip gets talk jock DePetro fired.

Hub Politics doesn't get what the fuss is about, because what's wrong with calling a fat lesbian a fat lesbian?

Yeah, no worse than calling the Margolis brothers a couple of short Jews. It's true, right?

Dan Kennedy wonders why DePetro was axed when Howie Carr's been snickering about gays and overweight people for years:

... So what is DePetro's real sin? Gay-bashing? Or stepping onto Howie Carr's turf? ...

Joe Dwinell covered the debate as it happens.

Whiteboy also covered it:

Cokie Roberts: Hello, and welcome. I'm Cokie Roberts. You might remember me as Sam Donaldson's dominatrix on This Week before that short, cute, Greek little man replaced us. Before we begin, I'd like to ask a question of the Democrat because that's all us media folks can talk about today. Should Kerry have apologized for his comments? ...

Sandouri Dean Bey finds Grace Ross alluring:

Her message resonates with the working class, who rightly feel that they/ve been given the shaft by the political establishment.

Why is Kerry Healey letting LaGuer's lawyer work for the state?

Hub Politics: There's just something about Deval Patrick and sex offenders. Also: a majority of likely Massachusetts voters are idiots.

Just in case, Mass. GOP News prepares for a Patrick win.

Kimberly Atkins notes the Patrick campaign is now telling people not to forget to vote on Nov. 7 - if too many people stay away thinking he'll win, well, he might not.

Jay Fitzgerald concludes:

... Sure, the coddles-criminals issue, as manufactured as it was, served as a surprisingly effective close-the-gap ploy. But the Healey camp somehow, it appears, convinced itself that it could be used as a central issue of the campaign. They lost perspective. They fell out of touch with voters. I mean, putting guys who look like skinhead neo-Nazis in prison garb and thinking it was clever? It's literally an insult to voters' intelligence. ...

Debate transcript. Ed Prisby breaks out the Miller Lite sixpack to help him watch the debate. Prisby may have some competition in the transcription biz.

Hub Politics on Healey's debate performances: While she is right on the issues, Kerry Healey is not coming off well in these debates.

Mass. Marrier explains why last evening's next-to-last televised debate was incessantly annoying, like rubbing a little Tabasco into an eye by mistake and compares the four candidates to various objects. More analysis from the Outraged Liberal.

On Channel 4 at 7 p.m. Jon Keller frets nobody will watch.

Michael Gee, late of the Herald, rips into the Globe in general, and Brian McGrory in particular, for the coverage of last night's gubernatorial debate:

"And Grace Ross?" McGrory wrote of the Green party candidate last night. "She seems really nice. But let's step beyond the political correctness and admit that she has none of the support and qualifications that entitle her to a spot on the stage. She's a distraction and she no longer belongs." ...

Fuck you, Brian, you arrogant, pretentious jackass! Who the flying fuck are you to say who belongs in an election and who doesn't? Aren't the debates supposed to show us Ross' qualifications for office or lack of same? Isn't her level of support (and the other three candidates') yet to be determined? Isn't that why we're voting on Nov. 7 in the first place? We're all so sorry democracy offends your super-developed sense of smell. ...

More (if less invectivized and less Globe-specific) media-suck rants here, here and here.

Who won the debate?

Outraged Liberal: Patrick.
Mass. GOP News: Healey (Mass. GOP News earns bonus points for watching post-debate analysis and concluding that Mike Barnicle must have suffered a head injury shortly before going on air).

Joe Dwinell is posting away.

From televised debates, that is. Greater Boston's Emily Rooney is among the media honchos who've put together gubernatorial debates this year and she says enough is enough: The fringe candidates have had their say, now it's time for Healey and Patrick to go at it mano a mano:

... After four attempts to "do the right thing", the media consortium needs to "do the gutsy thing" and pull the plug on Mihos and Ross for the November 1st debate so voters can hear what the two real contenders, Deval Patrick and Kerry Healey, have to say, unencumbered by a sideshow.