The last question of yesterday's US Senate debate was emailed in by "Jesse in Orono," who asked the candidates whether they believed Maine is better off than it was eight years ago. You can see their responses here at the 56:30 mark.

That sounded like something a guy I know named Jesse who lives in Orono might ask, and after a brief email exchange, he confirmed he was the origin of the question and sent along his thoughts about the candidates' responses.

I thought Susan Collins pretty much brushed my question off. The economic and energy crises certainly don't make things any better in Maine, but they're relatively recent developments that came as the result, not the cause, of our situation as whole. I thought her talk about partisan rancor was a platitude at best; it in no way addresses the policies that got us where we are or the ones that will take us into the future, and sounds hollow to me coming from a figure who has a record of siding with her party on so many key issues.

Tom Allen, I felt, did a better job of answering the question. Both candidates acknowledged that we certainly aren't better off today than we were in 2000, but Allen discussed some of the decisions that got us where we are and how he, unlike his opponent, opposed them. He also spoke of our need for change, which I appreciated; it is a topic oft-discussed in the Presidential Race, but the next President won't be able to effectively enact real change without a Congress that is ready to do the same.

Take this with a grain of salt. Jesse, a Democrat, says he's "not an undecided voter by any means."