John McCain, Barack Obama -- but no Ted Nugent?

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama square off tonight in another attempt to sway the opinions of voters.

Meanwhile, I just flipped through a promotional copy of “Ted, White and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto,” written by legendary rock star and passionate hunter, Ted Nugent.

And all I can say is, thank heavens this man is not on the ticket. But the debate would be far more entertaining if he were. A few of Nugent's beliefs, and my comments:

• Decree the 2nd Amendment a national concealed weapons permit for all non-felon Americans. (Whoa! I enjoy a good western, but reverting to the Wild West with sophisticated weaponry? Not a healthy environment.)

• The self-proclaimed deer-slayer writes: "Each morning I bow down on bended knee in reverence to the Almighty and pray for good bombing weather. The history of mankind is one of war, not peace...'Give peace a chance’ will get you killed. John Lennon was wrong. Imagine that.” (He's right about history, which unfortunately keeps repeating itself. Working toward peace, however, is also part of the history of mankind. Imagine that.)

• Refuse to fund healthcare for smokers, drug users and obese people who continue to eat fatty foods. (Some merit here. People should take better care of themselves — and cigarettes should be outlawed.)

• Wage a real war on drugs, including implementing the death penalty for first-time meth, crack, heroin and opium dealing. (Harsh is good, but this seems a tad too harsh. Now after the second offense...)

• Take appropriate oil and gas from Mexico and Middle East as payment for all debts we are owed by them. (Take by what means? By starting more wars? Por favor...)

• Nugent would "vote for the three-legged dog I saw on the highway today before I would vote for Senator Obama," and criticizes McCain for buying into "the global warming fraud" and refers to environmentalist as "dirty hippies" and "whack jobs" who "believe man is a blight on the earth." (I believe that about man just about every time I creep along on a freeway or see another piece of land succumb to so-called progress.)

• On the great outdoors: "Hunting, fishing, and trapping are the last, pure, perfect hands-on conservation, real-world, positive environmentalism, and resource stewardship roles available to mankind." (Hard to argue. Sportsmen remain an important management tool and are far more in tune to the outdoors than most environmentalists.)

There's more, but people should digest the Nuge in small doses, if they choose to do so at all. His book is available through Regnery Publishing. Enjoy the debate!

-- Pete Thomas

Photo credit: Michael Ives

Comments

[Mike]

Aside from being incredably simplistic and narrow-minded, this man would have to be a dictator, not President, to implement just one of these ideas. He may know how to live off the land, but he has no idea how this land is governed. On the other hand, he might make a good Republican VP candidate; he would look great in lipstick.

[Personal Responsibility]

"People should take better care of themselves — and cigarettes should be outlawed"

When you can figure out the contradiction here, maybe you'll get the chance to have a real byline

[Jim Young]

Nugent is a simple minded person with a big mouth and nothing in the gray mater area to back it up. Many of the things he advocates are on par with Mao's great leap ideas. He would have us in worse shape than W in a shorter time and we would wish W was back in for the good old days if that were possible. Even though Michigan is in very bad condition, because of the all the eggs in one basket [auto industry]. and not looking to any future eco friendly energy efficient cars, Nugent could not get elected in Michigan. Yes there are some idiots who would vote for him. But most people know that a monkey who waves around and AR15 on stage saying Obama suck on this is not worthy of a second look. I wonder if someone did a video or show and said that his little kid should have a 44 mag shoved up their ass and touched off, Is that just a JOKE? The Joke is Nugent, He evokes in us the tendency to gawk at a traffic accident or pickled punk. Not one of our better features as humans but we all do it. He is more of a freak that we look at to get a cheap thrill than any kind of oracle. I lived in North Michigan for most of my life, and not far from the Renegade ranch he is part of. I saw him and his zebra striped entourage from time to time. I would not cross the street to have him lick my boots. He a horrible rock voice and can only play guitar. Many of his band members usually filter off because of his idiot mouth. He most certainly is a legend in his own mind. His “we don’t need intellectuals” attitude and I know best reminds me of many of history’s great dictators. He would be a good dictator, he has the ego and the limited IQ to believe in his own stupidity with out question, and the lack of empathy for other people when he has to step on them to quell decent.

[TheWild Webster]

Nugent is an entertainer who deals on shock value to grab the attention of his audience (a bunch of rock-n-roll fans, often youth - facing a climate of drugs, sex, etc.) But, then again what do you call it when Pamela Anderson poses nude to oppose fur?

I can't say I always agree with Ted and sometimes I do think he can run away at the mouth and say things a tad extreme. But I don't really see a lot extreme if you understand where he is coming from. For example, praying for good bombing weather - well like it or not, there are young men and women somewhere in the world today wearing an American uniform dropping bombs on someone who did something to justify it. I would like to hope the weather might be clear enough that they hit those targets as accurately as possible and with the minimal collateral damage then get home safe.

Sure I could sit around with what John Lennon called the "Dreamers" (appropriately so) and think if everyone just hugged a terrorist the world would be so peachy!!! Get real!

And the notion of 'man-made' global warming 'is' a bunch of hooey. Back in the late 80's - interestingly enough during a republican administration - the environmentalist nut-jobs and animal "rights" whackos were mouthing off quite a bit. At the time I did two different college papers on the notion of 'global warming' - probably before a lot of you had heard what is was or knew what it was all about. At the time, similar to today, there were a few extremest "noise makers" and a whole slew of level headed 'scientists' saying those few were a bunch of alarmist nut jobs. (yet you never hear from the many, just the few)

At the time the internet was used by government and schools and I was able to use my college's internet access (before most of you knew what an internet was) to actually communicate directly with the head scientists in the field at the time. They told me some interesting facts about how the earth behaves - about long term cycles that repeat, about natural systems the earth has in place to self-regulate, about previous 'hoaxes' including a 'global cooling scare' as recent as the late 60's and early 70's and another 'warming' scare before that - about flaws in the computer models, historical reporting methods, and current analysis of same that seemed to be overlooked intentionally to create more noise.... for what?

It all ties into not so much a conspiracy, but a mindset that certain individuals who are for lack of a better word, 'anti-american' (anti-freedom, anti-individual liberty, anti-capitalist, anti-industrialist) - your own article scoffs at 'so called progress' - I tend to share Rand's reverence for the works of man myself, but I share an equal reverence for the wonders of nature.

Ted is blunt - American's bombarded with soft-ball political commentators and euphemistic dilution of harsh realities might do well to stomach a little 'blunt' every now an then. You can acknowledge the realities of the world or you can buy into the fuzzy-wuzzy bullshit we are spoon fed every day by people who want to sway our opinions, culture and society to a less free more government-controlled way of life.
Me? I personally hope Ted gets on a ticket somewhere some day, such an injection of spirit into the dumbed down body-politic might do it some good - maybe he can get Jessy Ventura as a running mate.

TheWild Webster