John Edwards Supporters Bullied in Nevada

Dear BW Readers,

As you have seen in the news, JRE suffered the worst defeat yesterday ever in any campaign. As many of us watched the returns, it was incredulous. We didn't understand. This state should have been his win (in addition to Iowa), but instead it became a circus and a nightmare. We heard reports that those showing up to caucus for JRE were told to go home and that he was not a viable candidate. Taylor Marsh reported Edwards wasn't viable either. Why was this the case, the champion for the working people?

Below is a diary entry from JRE's blog is one caucus goer's experience. I only wish C-SPAN would have shown this. It proves that the other two campaigns have gotten even dirtier and many of their supporters make me more determined not to support their candidacies ever.

The night before the Nevada caucus, the Clinton Precinct Captain stopped by my home. She said she knew I was leaning towards John Edwards.

She went on to say that the Edwards people were already pulling out and asked that I join Hillary because, like Richardson, Edwards would not be a viable candidate. (Imagine - she actually compared John to Richardson) The Hillary supporter also said that she didn't think our precinct had a captain for Edwards.

Yet, I knew John would not be giving up. The Hillary people have a lot of nerve pretending that John is not even in the race. He easily won the debate. Nevada should have showed him more support. Instead, I wonder how many people decided to support Hillary or Barack only because they were told that John didn't have a chance. I know this was happening because my own mother fell into this category. She ended up supporting Edwards only because I called and told her she shouldn't support one of the other candidates merely because she didn't think John would win. The caucus system would take care of that. Others may not have given him a chance, due only to people spreading lies.

When me and my husband arrived at the caucus sight, we were surprised that there was no section set up for uncommitted voters. I wanted to talk to the uncommitted people and tell them how we need John to represent us, the American people. Instead, I had to put up with Hillary and Barack supporters booing and yelling and making ugly comments as I attempted to find out if there were any undecideds among them. I did indeed find some, but it was very difficult to sway anyone, or even attempt to sway anyone, surrounded by these other candidates' supporters. By the way, our precinct only needed 8 people for John to be a viable candidate. I strongly believe that we would have had a chance to get those 8 if there had been an uncommitted section.

The worst part of the caucus was having to leave the John Edwards section and move over to the Obama section. I truly believe John is the right man for the job, but Obama was the best second choice. Still, it was hard to give up. For some, it was even more difficult. Me and my husband had already decided our second choice, while others had not. For those among the Edwards supporters who had not made up their minds for a second candidate, the Clinton and Obama supporters made their decision extremely difficult. One lady was completely surrounded by members of both groups and successfully driven to tears. She ended up leaving without turning in her preference slip.

Lastly, after moving, I stood next to an Obama supporter who was practically laughing at the aforementioned Edwards supporter, for being overcome by emotion. It made me nauseous. But, she said something that made me chuckle. She said that she, the Edwards supporter, should have known this was coming and made up her mind. She said she should have known from watching tv! I told her that some people don't believe everything the tv tells them. Her response - "How did you find out about the caucus then?"

In the end, I thought the caucus was an ugly experience and I wish John well in other states. Nevada is definitely driven by the media. It sounds like tv ads may have been the way to go, in Nevada.

Krystal Hernandez
Las Vegas, Nevada

Sickening and disheartening.