For Elizabeth Warren, 2011 was bittersweet. The Harvard professor saw years of academic work and government advocacy culminate in August with the opening of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency tasked with ensuring banks play fair with the average American. But after Obama declined to nominate her to lead it and Republicans in Congress blocked the bureau's most important powers, Warren was left searching for another avenue to pursue her Main Street crusade. She found it in Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat in Massachusetts, where she'll challenge Republican Senator Scott Brown next year.