Housing Secretary Julian Castro endorsed Hillary Clinton today. They spoke at joint rally in San Antonio to enthusiastic crowds.

Hillary and Castro have been building ties for a while now. He's often been mentioned as a potential VP choice for her. At the 2012 Democratic Convention, he spoke the same night as Michelle Obama -- I thought: "Michelle Obama was good but hands down, the star of the night was Julian Castro.

Definitely a winning combination in my book.

My thoughts: Hillary came across the best in the debate -- by miles. Poised, prepared, and accomplished. With an open mind and willing to listen to other ideas.

Bernie Sanders has better positions on some issues, but he can't win. I hope he stays in the race as long as possible, because it's important for people to hear his ideas.

O'Malley was third, in my view. His best line: calling Donald Trump a carnival barker.

This was a substantive debate that addressed the issues, unlike Republicans who have been an embarrassment to watch and listen to.

The best moment: the standing ovation by the crowd when Sanders said the American people are tired of hearing about Hillary's "damn emails."

Webb and Chafee will be gone soon.

Your thoughts?

I just got home and have seen none of the preliminaries. Thus, I am untainted.

I'll post my thoughts periodically throughout the debate. No stenography so if you want to know what is being said word for word, you'll have to watch.

Update (Jeralyn): I just got home as well and will chime in in comments. Thanks, BTD!

0-0 in the 2nd.

You think Anderson Cooper rolled some dice last night?

Ugh "we teamed up with FaceBook." I'm tired already.

Jim Webb lives!

0-0 in the 3rd.

Omigawd CNN is determined to bore us to death.

2 minute opening statements. zzzz.

I''m also tweeting really HIlarious stuff here

Bernie gives his stump speech. It's a good one though.

Hillary very polished delivery not surprisingly.

First question TPP, Cooper load it with the "say anything" crap. But Cooper is not tough enough it doesn't work from him.

Clinton answer is fine.

SOSHULIST!!!!

I'll have to think about Sanders' answer a little bit.

Interesting interplay between Sanders and Clinton on SOSHULISM! she defended him but differentiated as well. Pretty deft.

Bernie getting hit on guns.

Hillary hitting him on guns!

Everybody hammering Bernie on guns!

Hillary pretty happy with this debate so far.

Hillary plays Obama card! Really smart!

Hillary owning this debate.

Now Libya, Hillary dead wrong on that one. Imo. No one agrees with me. Webb does apparently.

Thnk you Bernie

I'm calling the fight. Hillary by TKO. Now wants 60 debates, not 6.

In case you were wondering:

For those wondering (@armandodkos), Biden aide tells me: "The Vice President supports the TPP agreement and will help pass it on the hill."

— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) October 5, 2015

So Labor, how do you like Biden now?

McCarthy on Hannity: "We put together a Benghazi special cmte... What are her [Hillary Clinton's] numbers today? Her numbers are dropping."

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 30, 2015

The McCarthy there is Kevin McCarthy, the likely next GOP speaker of the House, touting the GOP "accomplishments" in the House.

So the Benghazi committee and all its leaks to Michael Schmidt of the New York Times has one purpose -- to damage Hilary Clinton. Your tax dollars at work.

McCarthy's words:

Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Fox News’s “Hannity” on Tuesday. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would’ve known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen.”

Donald Trump will unveil a new tax plan tomorrow. Tonight he is on 60 Minutes. (no link due to autoplay video.) And in a new NBC-WSJ poll, he's fallen to only one point above Ben Carson.

Are his days numbered? Bill Clinton doesn't think so.

I'm surprised he's lasted this long, but I still don't believe he'll end up as the nominee.

Looking at the polling in the Dem primary, it's clear that there is a "Biden Effect." What is Biden's impact? Where would his supporters go if he decides not to run? A few polls ask the question.

In the Fox poll, including Biden yields a 44-30-18 result, Clinton-Sanders-Biden. And without Biden?

It's Clinton 56, Sanders 32. Clinton up 12 and Sanders up 2. Obviously no Biden helps Clinton.

More.

There's a Republican debate on tonight on CNN. Is anyone watching? Here's a place for your thoughts on it.

While the idiotic "oppo research" (no actual research involved) from David Brock and his Correct the Record organization (FTR - it was despicable and idiotic imo, which, unfortunately for Clinton, is too common in her "allies" see Davis, Lanny) has been the lead takeaway from this brouhaha, I'd like to note the Sanders response (really smart imo). From McClatchey:

“They suggested I’d be friendly with Middle East terrorist organizations, and even tried to link me to a dead communist dictator,” Sanders said in a fundraising email that criticized a super political action committee called Correct the Record, which supports Hillary Clinton. [My emphasis]

Sanders is referring to the late Hugo Chavez. Strictly speaking, Chavez was NOT a dictator, he was duly elected multiple times. But he was an authoritarian, and, imo, bad for Venezuela.

More

Classified emails passed through commercial email services like Google and AOL on their path to or from a private server maintained by Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, but so far, the government appears to have done little to retrieve or secure the messages.

Also too, the FBI appears to have done nothing to capture the "classified info" sitting in the State Department's unsecured system. It's as if no one really gives a sh*t about the "classified info" that isn't on Hilary Clinton's server. Gerstein writes:

A point I have tried to make a number of times on the "Eghazi: It's Classified!" "scandal" is that the originators of the "classified" e-mails were career State Department officials. Thus, I noted that the current US Ambassador to Bahrain William Roebuck originated a now "classified SECRET" e-mail that founds its way to Clinton's inbox after being forwarded by multiple careeer State officials.

Yesterday Josh Gerstein identified now "classified e-mails that were originated by 33 year State Department veteran William Burns.

Now today the AP reports what should have been obvious to any honest observer by now - State Department officials routinely sent subsequently classified information over unsecure e-mail:

The New York Times is pumping Joe Biden again . Why do I say that? Because as I was reading this article today, "Joe Biden Gets Serious", I felt like I had read it before. I just searched for it. Here's last week's Joe Biden Wades Further Into 2016 Bid.. The articles share a co-author. Both talk about meetings with private donors, the revving up of a draft Biden campaign, his late son's hope he'd run, supportive quotes from long time cronies, and suggestions that Hillary's campaign is in trouble. [More...]