Wednesday Roundup: The Thunder at Soldier Field

If you were waiting for fireworks at last night's debate or hoped to see some interesting changes to the candidates' overall strategies, well, you got what you were looking for. As many comments as there have been saying this was the best debate so far, clearly the winner was the American People.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama came under attack for various reasons, the former for what some perceive as a too-chummy relationship with business, and the latter for his recent comments on launching military operations in Pakistan. The terminology used everywhere is that "the gloves came off."

In running through some different comments on various websites about the debate, it seemed like many union Democrats were pleased to hear what John Edwards and Joe Biden had to say, and I've seen a lot of positive commentary on Dennis Kucinich, actually. Everyone seems to think that he benefited from Gravel not being there and from the union setting, in which he has some cred.

One of the favorite crowd response lines came from Edwards, concerning retirement. From USA Today:

"...we ought to treat the pensions and the retirements of the CEOs of the companies exactly as we treat the retirement of every other worker in the company."

Not only do I personally agree, but it is also a good line. Chuck Todd made the point that many of the other candidates seemed to be swinging for Edwards, which is a tacit acknowledgment on their part that last night's room was more or less his. The clip you'll see on the news today, however, is an exchange between Dodd, Clinton, and Obama over Obama's Pakistan remarks. You can see it here. It is candid and I thought the crowd responses were extremely interesting.

Also, how great is it for Democrats to have a debate at Soldier Field? Things got a little heated at times, and that's what this is for, but I think it was overall a good night for Democrats. Update and PS: Keith Olbermann did great, and is a hero.

In other labor news, the Texas AFL-CIO has a new a president as past president Emmett Sheppard retired. Becky Moeller, late of Southwestern Bell, moved from secretary-treasurer into the top spot after being elected by the membership. Her old post was filled by Paul Brown, a firefighter from Big Spring. Congrats, guys.

In state news, some reports about what taxpayers have been funding for Governor Perry have come out, and there might be some remarks following: apparently the security on his foreign trips has cost taxpayers around a quarter of a million dollars. The TDP's Amber Moon makes an excellent point about how interesting it is that there's money for Perry's security detail on "lavish" foreign trips but not for, say, state community college health care.

Lastly today, remember that government crackdown on illegal hiring and increased raids the government has been promising for awhile? Well, now they mean it. I'm sure this is actually going to happen, but the rollout and leaks are so obvious, anyone who gets raided after six months of warnings like this and has problems in the aftermath was just not paying attention. At all. Dear Government: Raids like this are more effective when they aren't advertised.