Landrieu, Melancon, Morial: vapidity reigns over them

Sometimes one must shake his head with incredulity at the divergence between the real world and what Democrat politicians claim things actually are. Some Louisiana political figures gave us excellent examples concerning the unreal world imagined by Democrats at their national convention.

First up was former New Orleans mayor, now head of the National Urban League, Marc Morial. He opined that comments about how the party’s almost presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama draw unfair criticism about him being too inexperienced to run the federal government, observing that relatively recent presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and current Pres. George W. Bush had no national political experience, so why should Obama with his eight years in the Illinois legislature and four in the Senate be considered so unseasoned, he argued.

One may forgive Morial the obvious denseness of this remark, as it was Morial the executive who more than any New Orleans mayor drove the city into the ground and whose relatives associates not yet convicted remain under criminal investigation while he fights a lawsuit accusing him of corrupt practices. His mentioned chief executives actually ran a government and each accomplished significant things during their six to 12 years in office. Obama has no such experience and has not one significant legislative accomplishment in any office. Even his putative Republican opponent Sen. John McCain can claim over two decades in the Senate with some significant (if not always the wisest) policy accomplishments and committee leadership, as well as executive experience in the military. Morial must never embark upon a career as a fruit salesman because he clearly doesn’t know the difference between apples and oranges.

But there’s more from this buffoon. He then chides the media for not bringing up this point (which no doubt they avoid to prevent themselves from looking stupid) and even implies the media is in some sense biased against Obama because they don’t “bring a little perspective” to the charge. If he believes this, he truly lives in a fantasy world as media perceived and displayed favoritism for Obama in the campaign has been documented time and time again.

Then almost on cue we have confirmation of, if not Obama favoritism at least sympathy towards Democrats in general or perhaps more specifically Sen. Mary Landrieu, when the New Orleans Times-Picayune’s national political reporter Bruce Alpert ineptly relays her remarks at the convention. She spoke in part about her idea with first nine, now 15, other senators to deal with dwindling energy supplies for the U.S.

Inexpertly, Alpert describes the plan as “The measure combines increased domestic drilling with more conservation and development of alternative fuels and cars powered by nongasoline products.” But this is like handing a person who knows nothing about oranges the unpeeled fruit and inviting him to bite into it by describing how the inside tastes. Alpert makes no mention that the plan only marginally increases the amount of potential drilling that could be done while imposing $84 billion in new taxes that will get passed through to consumers. To have reported it this way, either Alpert didn’t know what he was writing about or he’s in the tank for Landrieu.

Yet as ridiculous as Morial sounded, Landrieu actually does him worse when she insisted “I am not here to be a champion of the oil industry” on the basis of the plan. As it is, the organization of petroleum producers the American Petroleum Institute weeks ago released a blistering critique of the proposal that shows that if anything they consider Landrieu and her supportive colleagues are opponents of them on the issue. That she tries while engaged in a difficult reelection battle to pander to voters back in the state (a fair number in the energy industry) in this fashion defines chutzpah.

Finally, a minor case of muddled thinking infected Rep. Charlie Melancon, who offered his musings on why Obama looks like he will be pummeled by the Louisiana electorate. They included the official liberal Democrat narrative being circulated to explain an eventual Obama defeat (“racism”) and the inexperience issue, but he only obliquely stumbled onto the sole real reason, the Louisiana electorate being more conservative.

Let’s make it a little more basic and simple for Melancon since he seems to need the help. Obama was the most liberal senator in 2007 according to National Journal ratings. His new running mate Sen. Joe Biden was the third most liberal. This means there are profound policy disagreements between the majority of Louisianans and this ticket and it therefore has absolutely no chance of winning the state. Issue preferences do matter.

The convention is only halfway over, providing more opportunities for Louisiana Democrats to top these examples of absolute vapidity.