Former U.S. Senator John Edwards delegates have announced their support for Barack Obama.

16.5 delegates to go to clinch the nomination.

UPDATE: 10 delegates to go.

Donate here.

As many of you know I am an Obama supporter and a first time caucus goer. Here is my experience...

We showed up at 10 AM and the Hillary camp was all set with signs and volunteers. It didn't take long for the Obama volunteers to neutralize Hillary's head start. For starters, we noticed that Hillary's supporters were breaking the rules by placing Hillary signs where they were not allowed and we asked them to take them down, which they did.   We then noticed, that a car sporting Hillary signage, was double-parked, blocking people who needed access to handicapped parking.  We told a woman who just had a hip replacement to park her car right beside the car.

I am so disappointed with the Democratic Party of Nevada. These folks are not Democrats, they're Hillary supporters. The audience was an embarrassment and I am ashamed to be from this city. No wonder we elect mob lawyers for Mayor.

The audience was basically divided into two sections.  One side was UNLV, the well behaved section and the other section was the Hillary (oops, I meant the DNC) section. The DNC section is where I was seated and it was filled with Hillary supporters. The guy next to me said he was for Edwards and lied, because the only person he cheered for was Hillary. Loud, obnoxious, women were sitting behind me that talked throughout the debate and sneered "trial lawyer" every time Edwards spoke and called Obama "arrogant". I wanted to turn around and tell them that I guess they didn't have the nerve to call him "uppity".

This is historic -- Senator Obama is going to have 350,000 donors and half a million contributions by the Q3 deadline. I thought I'd make this diary a live blog of Senator Obama's Q3 numbers.

Update:

We did it! Over 350,000 donors to the Obama campaign. This is a historic moment in US political campaigns. One more goal to reach -- we are closing in on the half a million contributions mark. Please give to the Obama campaign.

Update II:

Goal reached. History made.

Yesterday I posted on Alegre’s diary a picture of a t-shirt I saw in a store at the mall. The t-shirt had a picture of Barack and Hillary with a caption that read, "Bros before Hoes". I was offended and made my husband take a picture of it.

Here is the picture

John Edwards’ campaign is facing serious financial troubles and the decision to scale back staff in Nevada is proof. He is choosing to not compete in the  most diverse state of the early primary contest. While John Edwards scales back, his rivals: Bill Richardson, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton are opening up offices and expanding their staff in Nevada. To add insult to injury, Bill Richardson announced hiring 7 Nevada staff on the same day, Edwards campaign made the strategy shift.

Yesterday, I asked Elizabeth Edwards if the Edwards campaign have given up on Nevada. This was her response:

John and I have been to Nevada more than anyone. (57+ / 0-)
John has been more than any other candidate.  I have been more than any other spouse.  Staff gets shuffled all the time, and frankly, the shifting calendar (which is not yet set in stone) will probably result in more shifting from various places.  John will win Nevada.

by Elizabeth Edwards on Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 02:58:25 PM PDT

This past Friday, Barack Obama paid Las Vegas a visit to speak with the Culinary Workers and the National Association of Black Journalists (please read this excellent diary on Barack addressing the "black enough" question by psericks) -- and to conduct his first Town Hall in the city.  I attended the Town Hall that afternoon along with 2,000 potential caucus goers who are enjoying the attention they’re getting from our Democratic candidates.

What’s it with all this hullabaloo on foreign policy? And while we are still at, whose side are you on? As a liberal who’s looking for a drastic change in our foreign policy from what we’ve had post-9/11, I side with Barack Obama. I don’t need to disclose my strong support for Barack to any of you since I have been both open and vocal about it on this site.  However, this debate highlighted the reason I am supporting Barack over Hillary and to a lesser extent John Edwards – Barack is unabashedly liberal and draws others to the Democratic Party with his politics of change that is highlighted with his liberal position on the Iraq war. Barack sees no shame in being a liberal and embraces it with his positions and his rhetoric. He does not try to go to the right of anyone like Hillary or change his rhetoric to please a General election electorate.

It looks like Big Dawg is steaming mad because the NY Times is not aggressively going after Obama about a quote of his on the war, and in not doing so, the paper is giving preferential treatment to the Junior Senator from Illinois. I guess he did not read the NYT's hit piece on Obama's stock buys.

"He quoted Obama as saying in some other newspaper a couple years ago that he didn't know how he would have voted. He also said that Obama had said at some point in 2006 that there was very little difference between his position and Bush's position on Iraq. He said that The Times had not reported these comments prominently. It was like two minutes on how Obama was getting a free ride while the paper pursued the Hillary-should-apologize storyline...He was just upset about it. He was passionate."

That is the headline on the Cincinnati, Enquirer.These headlines are showing across the nation -- Austin, LA, Iowa, Cleveland, and the list goes on. The local headlines are all about the huge crowds Senator Obama is drawing. Unusual for this early in the campaign. Along with the large crowds small donations are being collected. This is truly a grassroots campaign and a campaign like no other.

Barack Obama was in Las Vegas today and had a great turn out for his first visit since he announced his candidacy. Here is my photo dairy.

The junior Senator of Illinois will not participate in the Nevada Democratic Presidential Candidate forum being held in Carson City. The Rest of the field will participate. Obama's schedule is not permitting him to participate.

Obama, who is scheduled to be in southern Nevada the same week, couldn't work the Nevada forum into his itinerary, campaign spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said.

"It was a difficult decision. He very much wants to spend time getting to know the people of Nevada, talking about how we move the country forward, but there are only so many days in the calendar," Pfeiffer said. "He has a vigorous Senate schedule, it makes it very difficult to do all things he wants to do."

Earlier this week I got an article from Roll Call emailed to me on contributions to presidentail candidates titled, "No money, no problem". The article was about Barack Obama's campaign refusing to take contributions from PAC and registered federal lobbyist.

Among the qualifications for acceptable donations listed on Obama’s Web site are that the funds are not from a PAC. A donor also must certify that, "This contribution is not made from the funds of an individual registered as a federal lobbyist or a foreign agent, or an entity that is a federally registered lobbying firm or foreign agent."

As Fidel Castro's health fails our thoughts turn to Cuba.  Fidel is "undergoing intestinal surgery and temporarily turning over power to his brother Raul."

The news came Monday night in a statement read on state television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga. The message said Castro's condition was apparently due to stress from a heavy work schedule during recent trips to Argentina and eastern Cuba. He did not appear on the broadcast. AP

We in the state of Nevada thank our senior Senator, Harry Reid for giving us, the people of Nevada and Westerners a voice in the Democratic presidential nomination.  Without Senator Reid it would not have been possible. In reaching out to all the members of the committee and openly supporting Chairman Howard Dean's "50 state strategy", Senator Reid secured this important victory for our state.  

Nevada and Western issues will be addressed during the Democratic presidential nomination, thanks to the man from Searchlight, Nevada, Senator Harry Reid.