The CNN event moderated by Wolf Blitzer took place at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, with seven of the eight top Democratic candidates taking the stage.

CNN imposed a restriction against candidates with less than $1 million in fundraising money, leaving former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel off the invite list. Gravel has raised only $240,000 through the first three quarters of 2007.

(One wonders whether CNN would have made the limit $2 million if Gravel had reached the $1 million mark.) Gravel did not “qualify” for the Oct. 30 debate in Philadelphia, either.

Hillary Clinton remains the odds on favorite of Vegas bookies and in national polls. In a poll on RealClear Politics (Forbes recently acquired a stake in this site), the New York senator holds a 22-percentage-point lead over her closest rival, Barack Obama and 32 points over John Edwards.

The other Democratic challengers are all polling in single digits and appear to be auditioning for vice-president or for a new career.

Barack Obama and John Edwards resumed the confrontation that they started with the New York senator in the Philadelphia debate last month.

At times, the debate seemed more like a street brawl, and Blitzer struggled to regain control. Edwards again attempted to brand Clinton as a Washington insider based on her support of resolutions empowering the president to take action in Iraq and Iran.

He also cited Clinton’s long list of corporate and individual donors, asking whether she would really bring change to Washington.

Clinton addressed the criticism, not by speaking to it directly, but by dismissing it as a move out of the Republican playbook. Obama challenged Clinton on health care, an issue Clinton has championed since her days as first lady.

In a spirited exchange, Clinton claimed Obama’s plan was not truly universal, while the Illinois senator countered that his plan focuses on being affordable rather than mandatory.

The audience behaved badly, often hissing and booing when the rhetoric turned negative. Dennis Kucinich continued to focus on the difference of his foreign policy positions, pointing to his objections to confrontation in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and his endorsement of a foreign policy rooted in peace.

Bill Richardson again called for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Earlier this week, Richardson added another credit to his vice-presidential resume: for the fifth time, he received a nomination for the Nobel Peace prize for his work in North Korea and Darfur.

Sen. Joe Biden, who attempted to play peacemaker amongst the squabbling candidates, did take issue with Clinton over merit pay for teachers. Biden, whose wife is a teacher, supports an increase in pay for teachers who improve their credentials (as his wife has done by earning advanced degrees while teaching), but disagrees with Clinton’s support of merit-based pay linked to testing performance.

Nevada could be a key state in the primaries, as well as during the national election in November 2008. A population surge in Las Vegas over the past few years has pushed the Silver State to the left ideologically, which could prove beneficial to the Democratic nominee come the general election. In order to make it to the Nevada caucus next January, Obama and Edwards first have to keep their campaigns afloat in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

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Source: blogs.forbes.com

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