News Digest, 2/22/08: Spinning The Debate

We may have just been party to the last Democratic primary debate that will actually matter.

CNN and Univision held the latest Democratic presidential candidate debate at UT Austin yesterday, and we were there covering it live, from the pregame to the spin room. Along with our typical liveblog of the event, we also got numerous audio and video clips. We had an interview with a Hillary supporter early on, as well as some footage of some unusual happenings just outside the venue with regards to Clinton and Obama supporters. We got tons of interviews from the press room as well; the first one, with TDP spokesperson Bill Brannon is already up, and we'll have more coming out throughout the day as we clean them up and post them.

In the last in our series of comprehensive coverage of Texas campaign appearance over the past few days, we'll also be blogging on Clinton's rally in Fort Worth today, in just a few hours. Make sure to check in for our reporting and analysis.

Three new polls came out yesterday for the Texas primary, and all three show Clinton with a lead that is within the margin of error for the poll. The polls by IVR Polls and by KXAN/Constituent Dynamics have Clinton winning 50%-45% and 46%-45%, respectively, while a Washington Post/ABC poll has Clinton with a 48%-47% lead. KXAN is currently conducting a second poll now that the debates have aired; hopefully this will give us a clearer indication of who did well where in yesterday's debate.

In international news, the United States embassy in Belgrade was lit on fire yesterday by masked Serbian nationalists that are opposed to Kosovo's independence. The embassy had been closed because of the imminent protest, but nevertheless, one body, burned, was found in the building after the fire.

And finally yesterday, we ran an article two-fer: Bree Buchanan from Annie's List talks to us about some of the endorsements the organization has made, and I take a look at the surreally high early vote numbers so far in the Texas Democratic party, breaking them down in a few different ways and discussing why that's important for Texas Democrats.

Again, join us later today both for more interviews from state and national figures regarding yesterday's debate and for coverage of the Clinton campaign event in Fort Worth. As always, thanks for reading.