John Edwards In Nevada: Reno Gazette Poll Shows 'Meteoric Rise'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- John Edwards seems to have made up a lot of ground in Nevada, where a Reno Journal-Gazette poll of 500 likely Democratic caucus voters shows he's barely trailing second-place Hillary Clinton. The poll was taken last weekend -- after the New Hampshire primary -- and the Nevada newspaper's political writer Anjeanette Damon says it represents a "meteoric rise" for Edwards since November. (The link will take you to a site where you can find the complete poll.)

Obama now gets 32%, Clinton 30% and Edwards 27%. The results show Obama overtaking Clinton. Damon, who has covered Nevada politics and state government for nearly a decade, thinks the shift means something is brewing.

"There is not too much to explain John Edwards meteoric rise in the poll (to 27 percent from 12 percent in November). I hear that other internal polls done in the state have a close Clinton-Obama race, with Edwards lagging a bit more than our poll found. But it's picking up on something."

She added: "A big percentage of voters can change their minds before Saturday. Nine percent are undecided and 12 percent can change their minds."

Could it be that Edwards emphasis of economic issues has found traction in Nevada, a state that leads the nation in foreclosures?

On the GOP side, it was John McCain, 22%; Rudy Giuliani 18%; Mike Huckabee 16%; Mitt Romney 15%, and Fred Thompson 11%. The poll was taken before Romney's win in Michigan.

NRA Board Member Ted Nugent: Rocker Uses The N-Word And May Run For Michigan Governor

[UPDATE: 8/25; 3:17 PM edt -- Ted Nugent has gone totally 'round the bend. Check out the YouTUBE Clip where he wants Obama to suck on a rifle and Hillary to ride the business end of an automatic weapon. Gov. Arnold and Sen. Feinstein also get targeted by Machine Gun Ted who looks as unstrung as a busted guitar. Nugent sounds like a rightwing a sicko off his meds. H/T to Buckeye State Blog for finding the item.]

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Even with some 30 million records sold, rocker Ted Nugent hasn't been elected to the Rock Hall on Lake Erie. The National Rifle Association board member, instead, has his eyes on another target -- the Michigan governor's mansion. He also was described as using some pretty pungent language about black people in a story published by the British news service Reuters, language that appears to have been so racially offensive its exact description was avoided.

The word starts with "n" and ends with "r" -- the N-word. About Michigan, his home state, Nugent remarked:

"Now the pimps and the whores and the welfare brats are basically the state's babies."

Reuters went on to report that the rock singer/guitarist is thinking about campaigning for governor in 2010, and noted he defended his frequent use of a "racial epithet" that is a highly denigrating term about blacks.

"Nugent refused to mince words and often uses a racial epithet to describe blacks that normally mean political suicide. He says his embrace of the word reflects his respect for the black contribution to rock and roll and has another expletive for anyone who disagrees with him."

He's used the N-word before, and is known for making intemperate remarks. If Nugent does become a politician, he won't be welcomed by Democrats. Nor would Republicans want someone who contends a racial epithet is a term of respect for fellow citizens who don't share his skin color. He might be welcomed by the KKK.

How long will the NRA put up with his antics? Sure, he's a noted gun buff and hunter, but how many respectable Second Amendment supporters want to have someone who openly uses racial slurs as a high-profile representative of their cause?

Bottomline: The fever from the famous catch scratch seems to have affected Ted Nugent's brain, it doesn't seem to function normally at all anymore. Ted is brain dead -- that might turn out to be the first line of a rhyme that costs him millions of votes.