I turned to Democratic strategist Kelly Ferro for this question: What strategy do you expect from tonight’s debate? Should Hillary hit Obama hard? Should Obama come out with more specifics?

I know you all want to see some blood, but Fero expects a rather low-key evening for us:“Despite advice from many pundits that Sen. Clinton should attack Sen. Obama — after all, what does she have to lose? they ask — the best strategy for each candidate is to get through this without committing a major gaffe.  That’s the likeliest scenario for this debate: no real fireworks.”

They say the race in Texas is dead even. I’m wondering when was the last time a “hot” candidate lost his lead because of a debate? For some reason, my mind just keeps turning back to the Nixon-Kennedy debate and those awful sweating moments for Nixon under the studio lights. What a nightmare for his campaign.

I wonder, as the Clinton campaign has suggested, that superdelegates are going to rescue Texas for HRC?

Deece Eckstein is our eyes and ears in the Obama camp tonight. You may remember Deece — well-known in Dem circles — from his stint at People For The American Way.

Today, Deece has been doing some of the peripheral volunteer work for the Obama camp. For instance, one of Deece’s tasks today was to find a half-hour yoga class to give some Obama campaign staffers a brief respite from the stress. And I know he was organizing some volunteer group activities, too.

The more glamorous business was Obama’s visit with Coach Mack Brown today at Darrell K Royal Stadium. We got some notice from the Obama camp about the event…

“Senator Obama’s meeting with Coach Brown comes in the midst of his ‘Stand for Change Tour’ across Texas. Tuesday and yesterday, Senator Obama headlined rallies and town halls in San Antonio, Houston and Dallas attended by tens of thousands of Texans. Tonight, Senator Obama will be in Austin to participate in the Texas Democratic Party/CNN/Univision Debate and tomorrow he will headline rallies in Edinburg, Corpus Christi and Austin.”

As for the debate… Obama’s camp is having a watch party/fund-raiser over at the Austin Music Hall tonight. The campaign staffers are old hands at this… I mean, isn’t this debate 42 or something? How nervous can you get after 20 or 30 of these?… but the locals are excited. It’s raising the energy level. To Deece’s recollection, this is the first time Texas has played a significant role in a presidential nomination since 1988.