Texas Two-Step

SUMMARY: The Democratic debate in Austin was a polite affair. But we found plenty of facts to check.

The Alamo metaphors won’t work.

The Democratic debate in Austin, Texas on Feb. 21, 2008 was not the showdown many pundits had predicted. Instead of showing up with guns blazing, Sen. Hillary Clinton came with daisies in her rifle.

“You know, no matter what happens in this contest,” she said in her closing remarks, “I am honored to be here with Sen. Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored.”

But despite the good feelings (both candidates kept saying how much they agreed with each other), we found a few facts to check:

• We found Obama was way off with his claim that former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and other experts have said his health plan reduces costs more than other plans. We rated that

False.

• But Obama was right that he’s been endorsed by the largest newspapers in Texas and rated his claim

True.

• Obama had his numbers right about the costly U.S. addiction to foreign oil. We gave that a

True.

• We found Obama was slightly exaggerating the numbers when he said hate crimes have “skyrocketed” since the debate over the 2006 immigration bill, but he’s right they are up. We gave him a

Mostly True.