8:31-Obama tells John he’s wrong. He’s been transparent about all of his earmarks (speaking of ears, Obama…)

8:34-Clinton is listing off what she wants to spend money on… it’s long.

8:35-Jorge asks Clinton if she believes it would be a shame if superdelegates choose a candidate other than who the public chooses. She says it will figure itself out..

8:37-Obama says heck yeah! I’m winning the popular vote!

8:39-Obama’s most testing time, apparently, has been living his entire life.

8:40-Clinton gets the crowd going reminding us, on the down low of course, of Monica Lewinsky.

8:41-But, even that doesn’t compare to our crappy lives, she reminds us. Twice.

8:42-Uhm… Maybe Clinton is getting some speech training from Huckabee. Her faith is driving her to do this.

I’m Mike Huckabee! Remember me? I’m running for president.

8:43-It’s getting sentimental. They shook hands, looked in eachother’s eyes and express their honor to be with each other. Awwwwwwwww!

(Remember the earlier lovefests?)

It’s time to start getting the spin. Off to the spin room! I’ll see you on the tube at 10!

Vince Leibowitz is indefatigable when it comes to blogging over at Capitol Annex. He’s live blogging the debate tonight on his site and Texas Kaos. I asked his opinion of who has the edge in this debate so far:

“I believe, right now, that Hillary Clinton is in the lead. Obama, perhaps by virtue of the order in which the questions are asked, appears to be parroting Clinton’s answers on too many occasions. I think Clinton scored major points on the plagarism issue, which I didn’t expect to see tonight. I was disappointed that the moderators wanted to cut off the debate on health care since both candidates admit they have differences here and this is something people want to hear about. Obama seems a bit uncomfortable in this debate. Right now, I’d say the debate is Clinton’s to lose.”

Derek Barre and Jordan Michalek of Westlake High School are in the Spin Room. I asked them for their observations of the evening:

“The Spin Room is a lot more quiet than I thought it would be. Everyone is either taking notes on their laptops or notepads, or editing pictures that they’ve taken. We didn’t get a chance to get into the spray, so we spent most of our time outside with all the candidate supporters interviewing people, and taking pictures out there. Although, we did run into some big names outside like George Lopez, Lloyd Doggett and Kirk Watson. It’s definitely been a great opportunity being able to spend the day here right in the middle of all the media and craziness surrounding the debate.”

I asked Jordan what a “spray” was….

“We were supposed to be allowed into the spray which is the group of photographers that are allowed to take pictures of the candidates before the debate starts. We weren’t allowed because the Secret Service changed their mind today on how many people they were going to allow in and so there wasn’t enough space for us on the floor. We met and spoke with a couple of local newscasters and yesterday at the walk through we met one of the CNN correspondents, but that’s about it so far.”

8:12-Campbell tries to shut them up about the one topic in which they differ slightly. Obama will have none of it. Healthcare continues.

8:14-Healthcare continues. Clinton accuses Obama of not wanting to insure everyone. Obama, again, will have none of it.

8:15-Jorge bringing out the bats too. “Are you suggesting Obama doesn’t have the experience to be commander in chief?”

8:17-In a nutshell: Hillary says yes.

8:18-Obama wants to keep U.S. as strongest military and take care of Texas families. Aw, shucks, thanks Barack!

8:20-Barack mentions AGAIN, that he didn’t vote for the war in Iraq. Thus, he is capable of being commander in chief.

8:21-Ok, from this angle..her outfit kind of looks like something out of Star Trek.

8:23-She wants to bring the troops home… let me guess, so does Obama.

8:24-He’s alluding to the troop surge working. Barack, are you trying to appeal to Texas Independents and Republicans??? Campbell Brown puts him on the spot “Do you think you made a good decision to oppose the war?”

8:27-Back to McCain wanting the troops there for 100 years. Hello? There has already been a 100 years war!

7:58-Obama gives himself props for his ideas…4 grand a year for students who agree to do community service. Where the heck was that money when I was paying for college?

7:59-Quote of the night “If your candidacy is going to be about words, then they should be your own words. When you lift entire phrases from other people’s speeches, then that’s not change you can believe in. Its change you can xerox!” –Hillary Clinton

CNN’s blog comments on the source of this comment.

It is getting good…John and Campbell, your producers will be proud.

8:03-Obama goes on to talk about healthcare after Clinton implied he was too scaredy-cat to talk about universal healthcare.

Obama’s proposal on universal health care.

Hillary’s Health Choices Plan.

Clinton’s failure in 1993, called socialized medicine.

7:05-Within minutes of the opening debate, Clinton is sure to remind Texans that she lived here for about 3 minutes more than 30 years ago. She was great friends with Barbara Jordan and Anne Richards (pulling at our heartstrings).

7:07-Clinton pushes her universal healthcare agenda (she needs Texas..I’m expecting her to pull out the stops).

Thought: I like her new personal shopper..this suit is pretty distinguished and simple.

7:09-Obama now gives his opening speech. He promises he will be BFF with Clinton after the claws come out tonight.

7:10-Obama talks about healthcare too….yawn. Are they going to repeat eachother all night??

7:11-He’s now moved on to the war which never should have been “authorized.” Dig #1

***Just saw George Lopez in the audience

7:12-Wait. Now he loves Barbara Jordan too. I guess there are not too many famous Democrats from Texas.

7:13-Jorge Ramos speaking English/Spanish-Would you meet with Cuba’s next leader?

7:15-Two minutes later, she still hasn’t answered the question. Jorge plays hardball and asks again. She says no—until she sees change.

7:16-Obama will meet with the new prez…without conditions (except for: liberating the people, the press, etc).

7:17-Campbell grills Obama. Wait, she says-you claimed you would normalize relations with conditions…uh oh.

—Obama’s mention of JFK #1

7:19-Clinton rebuts saying its not right to meet with an enemy immediately, until they negotiate some conditions. Now, Clinton mentions JFK.

7:20-Chelsea is proud of mama (taking notes for her own presidential bid)

7:21-Obama doesn’t want to hurt other countries’ feelings

7:22-Now we get to the economy. “How would a president Obama be different from a president Clinton on handling the economy?” from John King.

7:23-He’s not answering on what is different. He wants to stop benefitting companies who ship jobs overseas (same as Clinton). No income tax on social security (same as Clinton)…

7:26-Obama is playing very nice…I wonder if they got scolded by the Democratic Party for being divisive.

7:27-Clinton wants a “trade time-out.” Her list on the economy is the same and in the same order as Obama’s!

7:28-Home foreclosures will get a time-out as well. So, do interest rates—their time out is for three years!

7:29-Playing to old Austin….green jobs. Oh, and end George Bush’s “war on science.” Campbell tells her to shut it already.

7:30-We are talking about immigration already!

7:31-Clinton wants to crack down on immigration. Make them learn English, pay taxes and go after employers who take advantage of them.

7:37-Clinton thinks Bush is absurd when it comes to the border wall. Except, she voted for it.

7:38-Now she wants to listen to the people who live along the border. “Does that mean you think your vote was wrong?” said John King.

7:39-She will decide that after she listens to the people who live along the border. She is screaming at us for some reason.

7:40-Obama attacks Bush as well now. And, he agrees with Clinton wholeheartedly. Have they already struck a prez/vice-prez deal?

7:43-She doesn’t want language to be the official language. But, she wants all immigrants to learn English.

7:44-Obama says the same thing as Clinton. Could this debate get any more boring????

7:45-Obama takes the bilingual question to get first shot at talking about his end to standardized tests.

7:46-First commercial break after more than forty minutes of agreeing with eachother.

7:50-And, we’re back! John King must have gotten a hint from producers to spice it up. So, now he brings out the old jabs they’ve thrown at eachother.

7:51-Clinton is not taking the debate. She wants to be likeable, darnit! Ok, Ok..she will mention that she is “solution-oriented”

7:52-Uh oh, she brings up Kirk Watson and his inability to play hardball and talk about Obama’s accomplishments. Cut to Watson in the audience, PLEASE!

7:54-Obama points out, subtley of course, that he wasn’t born yesterday and has been involved in politics for 20 years.

7:54-They cut to Kirk…he was clapping for Obama. A little red in the face, I believe.

7:55-Ok, the jabs are on. He pointedly reminds us every major newspaper in Texas has endorsed the Barackster.

The audience is united in scorn for the Bush administration. Easy laugh.

As Kelly Fero points out, HRC looks more energetic. Prepared.

“Less hat, more cattle.” “Change by Xerox.”

Barack Obama is a bit more tired.

Most interesting issue to date? The border fence.

Campbell Brown opens the debate, with Univision’s Jorge Ramos and CNN’s John King.

The crowd looks psyched.

Sen. Barack Obama has arrived at the debate, per NBC Newschannel.

Our friends at WOAI are reporting that Mike Huckabee and Bill Clinton actually are eating dinner at the same restaurant in San Antonio.

How small is this city?

Update: It was Mi Tierra. Of course. Clinton arrived as Huckabee was about to leave. No photogs were allowed on-site… so we have no idea if there was any small talk.

Tonight it’s all about the Clinton-Obama debate at the Hyatt.

Our Reporter Shannon Wolfson is on the scene. The lobby is still filling up at the hotel. Local Dems expecting a crowd of 2,000…. Definitely the biggest event since Sine Die, and Sine Die after the last session really fizzled when the House kept passing bills long into the night.

Shannon expects to see many of the local Democratic dignitaries — including Sen. Kirk Watson — as the evening progresses.

If you’re already there, you know that security is tight. They’ve got a line at the door. So you’ve got to be patient.

Obama and Clinton both have promised to drop in on the Hyatt post-debate. I expect real pandemonium.