washington correspondent norah o donnell. set the scene for us there. reporter: well, rachel, there is a strong independent streak that is running through this country. we saw it certainly in virginia, new jersey and now in massachusetts. and scott brown ran as an independent even though he was on the republican ticket. did he not advertise that he was a republican. and you have to acknowledge this was a very compressed election schedule because scott brown in many ways came out of nowhere and the coakley campaign did not do a good job of defining the issues early on. scott brown, the senator-elect, said tonight, tonight the independent majority has delivered a great victory. he also said, this is the people s seat. and that s what caused this crowd to erupt. he also said, we can do better. and that s a message, a winning message whether you re a democrat or republican, we can do better that may resonate. i say that based on what chuck reported tonight, the nbc news/ wall s