LAS VEGAS — Far out in the suburbs that reach almost to the horizon here, there's a beauty salon inside a beige-on-beige shopping center where the talk usually revolves around husbands, children, pets and affairs of the heart.
In the last few weeks, however, habitues of the tony Radichi Salon have turned their attention to a topic that once would have been taboo -- presidential politics.
One client is so fired up about Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy that she plans to hire a bus to bring friends to Saturday's Nevada caucuses.
When one Clinton backer at the salon said rival Democratic candidate Barack Obama was a closet Muslim (he belongs to a Christian church in Chicago), she got into a finger-wagging spat so hot that the proprietors posted signs: "No Politics Zone."
Notoriously transient and politically disengaged, Nevada has fought its way to the front of the presidential nominating calendar for the first time, a coming-out party that has locals both anxious and thrilled.
"There has never been anything like this before," said Marjorie Weiss, who has been manicuring some of Las Vegas' best-kept hands for more than a dozen years. "We've never encountered talk this intense, not even on Britney Spears."
Silver State organizers believe they have done everything they can to prepare for their moment in the spotlight, said veteran Las Vegas political commentator and newspaper columnist Jon Ralston.
But as the caucuses expand from a cozy conclave (9,000 showed up in 2004) to a mass event that could draw 50,000 or more, party activists can't help but worry about a low turnout or glitches in the complex delegate calculation.
"That could destroy any credibility the state has, and then we won't have an opportunity to participate this way again," Ralston said. "I think [caucus officials] have their fingers crossed; I think they are praying every day that it all works out."
The Democratic National Committee agreed in 2006 that it would move Nevada to the front end of the primary calendar, creating an early-voting foothold in the West and engaging minority voters while the presidential nomination was still up for grabs. The state has a significantly higher Latino population (24%) than the two states that traditionally kick off the campaign season -- Iowa and New Hampshire -- and than the nation as a whole (which is nearly 15% Latino).
