But watching them explain how they support John McCain, an enthusiastic supporter of a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump and a creator of the college sports betting ban proposal, is going to be great entertainment. Add that to the list of conservative complaints about McCain - soft on tax cuts and immigration, for starters - and this is going to be beautiful to watch.

McCain doesn't have the luxury that George W. Bush had on Yucca of making false promises in 2000 - remember "sound science"? It wasn't just Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who knew Bush was lying - it was obvious to most anyone, and the truth became clear soon after the 43rd president was inaugurated and moved the dump along.

But the man at the helm of the Straight Talk Express can't even try that when he comes here courting votes, surely under the auspices of the state GOP and some business and gaming groups.

McCain loves the idea of Yucca Mountain and has for years. Indeed, just six weeks before the Nevada caucus, which he ignored, here's what McCain told the New Hampshire media would be his solution to nuclear waste:

"My preference is that we store it. I always thought that Yucca Mountain was the right place to do it."

And what would a President McCain do about the dump? No Bushian parsing here from McCain in New Hampshire on Dec. 5:

"It's not a problem of technology. It's a problem of political will. We have now the worst of all worlds, because we have nuclear waste sites around every nuclear power plant in America, which provides us with the greatest challenge to our security. So I would try and resolve it and I would try to go back and revisit the Yucca Mountain issue, but I would do everything in my power to resolve it."

You have already seen a few of McCain's Nevada acolytes, even newly converted ones such as ex-Gov. Kenny Guinn, try to pooh-pooh McCain's position on Yucca Mountain. But someone who wants to "revisit" Yucca Mountain is someone who wants to push ahead with greater force than, perhaps, Bush ever did.

I can just hear GOP leaders and their business community pals when asked why they appeared onstage with someone bound and determined to get the nuclear waste train back on track after all these years. I bet they will sound like Ralph Kramden in "The Honeymooners" when backed into a corner by Alice, stuttering and gurgling incomprehensibly.

Beyond Yucca Mountain, McCain's record with the gaming industry is similarly woeful. He may not be an anti-casino crusader such as Rep. Frank Wolf - McCain actually has been known to play a little in the casinos here. But his efforts to prohibit college sports betting would have a tremendous monetary and jobs impact on the state's largest industry.

McCain has been pushing that ban for many years, only to be stymied by the delegation, the American Gaming Association and its allies.

And who did McCain attack five years ago when he couldn't get it done? The gamers and their money, which I am sure he will happily accept right now. Can't wait to hear those Ralph Kramden sounds coming from casino executives found to be embracing McCain this cycle.

Rep. Shelley Berkley put it well during the last presidential cycle, when McCain left behind the wounds of 2000 and embraced President Bush, including here in Nevada.

"When it comes to burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, President Bush and John McCain are birds of a feather," Berkley said four years ago. "John McCain has served our nation with honor, but as a U.S. senator he has voted repeatedly to dump nuclear waste in Nevada and has targeted our state's leading industry time and again."

The question this year, though, may be the same as it was in 2004: So what?

Like McCain, Bush had an anti-gaming record as Texas governor and obviously was disingenuous on the dump when he campaigned here in 2000 - although the president didn't have the voting record on Yucca and sports betting that McCain does.

Didn't matter much, though. Bush won the state. Twice.

So while it may be great theater to watch business and gaming leaders, along with the GOP elite, squirm as they back McCain, they probably won't be the ones with egg on their face if and when the state votes Republican once again.