That didn’t take long: just three days after U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal formally announced his pursuit of the Louisiana governor’s office later this year, the utterly predictable Democrat mudslinging against him commenced. Expect much more of it, and that it will be as groundless, baseless, and useless as this initial sally.
State Democrat Chairman Chris Whittington said Jindal was using the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina for political gain. It follows the common liberal Democrat strategy: they know they are out of step with the public so to hide that they accuse their opponents of doing exactly what they have done and are doing.
As soon as the hurricane danger was over, Jindal distinguished himself perhaps more than any other Louisiana politician in addressing the policy consequences of the calamity by supporting reasoned responses that were convincing rather than shrill, and balanced the needs of those victimized by the storm and its aftermath with the ability and willingness of the nation to provide for them. As a continuing effort to mitigate a potential long-standing problem, Jindal also was the most important U.S. House member behind the effort to win Louisiana a greater share of offshore energy production royalties, once the state had submitted to dedicating those additional funds.
Jeffrey D. Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University Shreveport. If you're an elected official, political operative or anyone else upset at his views, don't go bothering LSUS or LSU System officials about that because these are his own views solely. This publishes five days weekly with the exception of 7 holidays. Also check out his Louisiana Legislature Log especially during legislative sessions (in "Louisiana Politics Blog Roll" below).
23.1.07
Bush challenges Louisiana to really redesign health care
Pres. George W. Bush mentioned two items in the 2007 State of the Union Address directly impacting recent policy made in Louisiana, one that allows the state to recover from a poor decision already made, the other challenging the state not to make a poor choice with a pending decision.
Bush announced his “Twenty in Ten Goal” imploring the country to cut use of gasoline by 20 percent in the next ten years. Part of this would come by ramping up production of alternative fuels, setting a mandatory standard of the production of 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels.
Naturally, the mandatory standards should be scrapped, letting the market integrate the use of these fuels, but measures that increase ethanol production might save Louisiana from the bad decision made last year mandating the sale of such fuel which could force artificial price increases on motorists using Louisiana roads. Ironically, success here would allow a Republican president to bail out Democrat Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the Democrat-controlled Legislature who imposed this on the state.
Numbers indicate big Jindal edge, hard road for Blanco
While Gov. Kathleen Blanco would have trouble getting reelected against any conservative challenger, the best her handlers could come up with when it was revealed her worst nightmare of an opponent, U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, had entered the gubernatorial contest, was “As the hardest working governor in our state's history, I remain focused on the business of building our economy, improving our schools and completing the state's recovery after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”
Amusingly, her response tried to shift the issue from her nonperformance in office to the effort she expended in doing her job. Reminiscent of former Pres. Bill Clinton’s excuse when it was becoming clear his plan to nationalize a seventh of nation’s economy through a system that brought health care under firm government control would fail miserably, he argued that he was “working harder” than he ever had on the issue, ignoring the fact that one can work has hard as one likes on something, but if that person has the wrong philosophy to make it turn out right, no good will come of it and the people typically will realize this.
Such is the case with Blanco. She retains the tax-and-spend tenet of political liberalism and the serve-our-allies-first-forget-about-the-rest tendency of the good-old-girl network, as demonstrated through her three years in office, and that path leads to failure in improving the quality of life in Louisiana. She can work as hard as she likes, but because her ideas are wrong in the first place, they cannot improve Louisiana’s situation. Her inferior ideas disarm any ability she has to build the economy, improve schools, and complete the state’s recovery adequately.
Apparently a large portion of the Louisiana electorate already has made up its mind as such. Simply, if Blanco polls at 35 percent with 94 percent of the electorate already willing to state a gubernatorial preference, she cannot win this contest absent a miracle. Whether Jindal then can win it is a somewhat different matter, but the evidence is on his side.
The fact that at this time he appears to win in all areas of the state, and has such a commanding lead, augments this supposition. The way things work is that the possibility of candidates gaining in a situation of a large undecided vote is far greater than a candidate losing support from a public largely already stating a preference. Simply, people who psychologically commit early are a lot harder to dissuade than in eliciting support from those forming a preference for a certain candidate among those who don’t yet have one.
In short, this is Jindal’s race to lose. If he stays on message and out of controversy, he’ll be hard to beat regardless of who enters the contest.
Amusingly, her response tried to shift the issue from her nonperformance in office to the effort she expended in doing her job. Reminiscent of former Pres. Bill Clinton’s excuse when it was becoming clear his plan to nationalize a seventh of nation’s economy through a system that brought health care under firm government control would fail miserably, he argued that he was “working harder” than he ever had on the issue, ignoring the fact that one can work has hard as one likes on something, but if that person has the wrong philosophy to make it turn out right, no good will come of it and the people typically will realize this.
Such is the case with Blanco. She retains the tax-and-spend tenet of political liberalism and the serve-our-allies-first-forget-about-the-rest tendency of the good-old-girl network, as demonstrated through her three years in office, and that path leads to failure in improving the quality of life in Louisiana. She can work as hard as she likes, but because her ideas are wrong in the first place, they cannot improve Louisiana’s situation. Her inferior ideas disarm any ability she has to build the economy, improve schools, and complete the state’s recovery adequately.
Apparently a large portion of the Louisiana electorate already has made up its mind as such. Simply, if Blanco polls at 35 percent with 94 percent of the electorate already willing to state a gubernatorial preference, she cannot win this contest absent a miracle. Whether Jindal then can win it is a somewhat different matter, but the evidence is on his side.
The fact that at this time he appears to win in all areas of the state, and has such a commanding lead, augments this supposition. The way things work is that the possibility of candidates gaining in a situation of a large undecided vote is far greater than a candidate losing support from a public largely already stating a preference. Simply, people who psychologically commit early are a lot harder to dissuade than in eliciting support from those forming a preference for a certain candidate among those who don’t yet have one.
In short, this is Jindal’s race to lose. If he stays on message and out of controversy, he’ll be hard to beat regardless of who enters the contest.
22.1.07
Jindal candidacy to trigger liberal Democrat mudslide
The worst-kept secret in recent Louisiana politics is official: U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal will run for governor this year. By all indications at this time he will win. And because of that distinct possibility, expect both state and national Democrats will pull out absolutely every stop to somehow prevent this from happening.
Despite his newness to electoral politics, Jindal showed he had an affinity for it with his close loss, due to inexperience, for the office in 2003. Then, and until present in his job in Congress he has articulated a convincingly conservative agenda that makes him dangerous to the entrenched special interests and professional government elites they support (whether elected or appointed) that currently run Louisiana.
But what really concerns them and has the national Democrat apparatus very concerned is he brings this message as an ethnic minority member in America. A large part of the liberal Democrat cabal’s incessant chant for decades has been that conservatives and Republicans like only white people and promulgate public policies this sect demonizes – like insisting on merit not skin color for rewards, having government empower people rather than itself and special interests, and rejecting the mindless assertion that the American economic and social systems are irreparably stacked against ethnic minority groups to the point that only powerful, intrusive government must redistribute, now and forever, resources to make it right.
Despite his newness to electoral politics, Jindal showed he had an affinity for it with his close loss, due to inexperience, for the office in 2003. Then, and until present in his job in Congress he has articulated a convincingly conservative agenda that makes him dangerous to the entrenched special interests and professional government elites they support (whether elected or appointed) that currently run Louisiana.
But what really concerns them and has the national Democrat apparatus very concerned is he brings this message as an ethnic minority member in America. A large part of the liberal Democrat cabal’s incessant chant for decades has been that conservatives and Republicans like only white people and promulgate public policies this sect demonizes – like insisting on merit not skin color for rewards, having government empower people rather than itself and special interests, and rejecting the mindless assertion that the American economic and social systems are irreparably stacked against ethnic minority groups to the point that only powerful, intrusive government must redistribute, now and forever, resources to make it right.