It's no secret that I support John Edwards. And it's no secret that the slew of celebrities endorsing the candidates has thrown many of us into some heated arguments of late. I think it is great that the campaigns can turn "star power" into some momentum. As previously mentioned in other diaries Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins are joining Senator Edwards on his Bus Tour of Iowa this week. What makes this exciting to me is not the presence of the celebrities making speeches, but how the campaign has come up with a creative way to market their presence. Join me after the jump...

After an exciting night for Edwards supporters as the fundraising goal of 9 million dollars was met, the good news kept on coming as we received word that John Edwards convincingly won the Straw Poll of delegates at the WisPolitics.com Democratic Convention.

This marks yet another positive sign in the campaign to change America as Edwards is seeing his support increase in many individual states.

Kudos to the info obtained at MyDD

If you missed the latest presidential debate from Washington DC, you should go back and take a look at it right now.  IMHO, it was the best one so far.  You can see it here.

A poll conducted by the sponsors of the debate confirmed my reading:  of the big three, John Edwards did the best by far. With the strongest performance, Edwards more than doubled his support.  Here are the results of that poll:

John Edwards:  Pre-Debate Support From Audience: 11%, Post-Debate Support From Audience: 24%

Barack Obama: Pre-Debate Support From Audience: 64%, Post-Debate Support From Audience: 46%

Hillary Clinton: Pre-Debate Support From Audience: 19%, Post-Debate Support From Audience: 12%

Fresh new poll from Rasmussen reverses the accepted thinking that Sen. Obama is the strongest candidate against the Republicans in the General Election. Polls in June are not a good enough measuring stick, but I feel its pertinent to post the statistics to quiet those who feel that certain candidates are fading. According to the Rasmussen Reports:

After several months of only narrow or moderate leads over Democratic Senator Barack Obama, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has surged to a 12-point lead over the man from Illinois.

That's disheartening considering the hype the netroots gave to Obama after his debate performance. His lead against Fred Thompson has diminished to a statistical dead heat.

Meanwhile,

On the Democratic side of the aisle, far and away the best general election performance was earned by Edwards. He topped the four Republicans by an average of 51% to 37%. Edwards also outperforms the other Democrats against each Republican challenger.