Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) Trailing Badly

Two years out. But as we learned in Washington, California, Nevada and West Virginia, don't get cocky. Especially since two years is an eternity in politics.

A statewide poll commissioned by the Nebraska Republican Party offers good and bad news for U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

The bad news for Nelson: The senator could find himself the underdog if he decides to run in 2012, according to the poll.

The good: His approval ratings appear to be trending up.

The survey shows Nelson trailing Republican Attorney General Jon Bruning by 15 percentage points in a head-to-head hypothetical match up.

But the GOP poll also found Nelson's favorable rating at 50 percent - with an unfavorable rating of 43 percent.

His approval rating - in a GOP survey that looked at likely voters and, as such, emphasized Republicans - appears to have increased since January, when an Omaha World-Herald Poll of registered voters found that 42 percent approved of the Democrat shortly after he cast the deciding vote in favor of President Barack Obama's health-care law.