News Roundup, 2/21/08: Debate Day

John McCain had a pretty rough day yesterday — but then again, so did the New York Times.

Eight years ago, the Times reports, McCain had a relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman which many believed "had become romantic." The Washington Post ran a similar story soon after the Times did, partially verifying the allegations.

But news quickly turned to news about news. Somehow, the Times became the story instead of McCain and his possible infidelity, which could potentially hurt him among the socially conservative voters he's trying to get in good with.

Many among the conservative media were criticizing the Times for running a smear campaign for McCain, arguing that the Times purposefully picked an inopportune time to attack McCain. But most other journalists noted that actually, the Times had done quite the opposite: a story like this is never good, but the Times released it when it was least likely to hurt McCain — as it was late enough so that Romney, who had been his last challenger with a legitimate chance, had dropped out of the running, but early enough so that Democrats couldn't use it for very strong leverage when embroiled in the middle of their own primary struggles.

It looks like the Bush administration is running out of reasons to grant immunity to telecommunications companies that gave up private information in the new FISA bill. In an attempt to grasp at straws, they've pulled from the broom closet the old specter of the "evil trial lawyer." You know, those depraved individuals that defend people in court against overbearing corporate interests so that the people's rights and liberties are maintained? Apparently they're also to blame for the attempts by Democrats at not giving immunity to telecoms. I suppose Americans being sick of Republican duplicity and voting in Democrats to bring accountability into government interactions with the corporate sections isn't plausible enough a reason?

We had some presidential campaign activity happening up in North Texas yesterday. Obama came to speak in Dallas, holding a rally at the Reunion Arena. Josh and I liveblogged the event, he from the press pit and I from the floor, and both of us thought the energy at the event was more reminiscent of a revival than a typical political rally. Josh got some great video footage of the event as well. I also covered Chelsea Clinton's town hall meeting at UNT yesterday; the atmosphere was much different, as she used it as a forum to take and answer questions about Senator Clinton's candidacy instead of a typical rally.

And finally, we published yesterday an interview with well-known Texas Democratic strategist Ed Martin. Ed spoke with Josh on this week's episode of Who's Blue about the turnout potential for Democrats on March 4th, as well as what Democrats running for office in Texas stand to gain from the high level of excitement we're seeing around the state.

Thanks for reading, and stay with us throughout the day as we bring you live coverage of the CNN Democratic candidate debate direct from the University of Texas in Austin. We'll be liveblogging the debate and following up in the Spin Room, bringing you what we see when we see it.