Wednesday Morning Roundup

With less than a week to go before the primaries, the contest is getting feisty.

A Heated Debate

The Democratic candidates sparred over health care, the Patriot Act, Afghanistan and the economy on Tuesday night in the second of three debates this week — and the most heated debate of the race so far. As WBUR’s Meghna Chakrabarti reported, abortion was a flashpoint — and the topic prompted the usually reserved Martha Coakley to get personal.

The Globe’s Matt Viser and Frank Phillips noted that the abortion issue actually managed to overshadow foreign policy on a night when President Obama was announcing his plan to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan — a decision most of the candidates do not support.

Politico’s Jonathan Martin saw Coakley as a target in the debate. Rep. Michael Capuano and Stephen Pagliuca each took fire at the attorney general, but the exchanges, Martin said, only “underscored why the three men in the race have tread carefully against the female frontrunner in a state not typically known for such a genteel brand of politics.”

Speaking of targeting, Howie Carr took a shot at each of the candidates — and the race in general — in a Herald column on Tuesday morning. The Senate race, Carr said, is “making the Mumbles-Flats fight for mayor of Boston seem downright exciting,” but ultimately concluded: “Three guys, one woman = woman wins.”