Jindal Wins in Louisiana

It looks like the voters in Louisiana know who caused the Katrina mess in that state even if the left in the rest of America still blames Bush. The Associated Press reports:

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — In his second bid for governor, Republican U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal strongly led a field of 12 candidates in the Louisiana gubernatorial race late Saturday night as he attempted to avoid a Nov. 17 runoff.

Jindal, 36, the Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants, needed more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary to win outright without a runoff. Victory would make him Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction and the nation's youngest governor in office upon taking the oath in January.

It looks like Bobby is going to win without a run off. At this time he has 53% of the vote.

And what do you know, it seems like the Republicans are friendly to people of color. Despite what Democrats say about the party being a den of racists. In addition, this should improve our relations with India which have hit a snag over the atomic trade deal.

Here is more from the AP.

Virtually no one questions that Jindal, who lost to Democrat Kathleen Blanco four years ago, will be atop the field of a dozen candidates when the votes are tallied. But Democrats Walter Boasso and Foster Campbell and independent John Georges hope they can keep Jindal's support under 50 percent, sending him into a Nov. 17 runoff election.

But analysts also said Jindal built up support as a sort of "buyer's remorse" from people who voted for Blanco last time and had second thoughts about that decision amid widespread public dissatisfaction with the Democratic governor after Hurricane Katrina.

"I think the Jindal camp, almost explicitly, (wanted) to cast it this way: If you were able to revote, who would you vote for?" said Pearson Cross, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette political scientist.

Not Blanco. How Nagin (mayor of New Orleans during Katrina) won re-election is a mystery.

ABC News makes an interesting point.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, won the Louisiana governor's race Saturday, carrying more than half the vote against 11 opponents to become the state's first non-white governor since Reconstruction.

Louisiana had one non-white Governor before Jindal. He was a Republican named Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback and he was the first black governor of any state.

During the Civil War, Pinchback traveled to Louisiana and became the only African American captain in the Union-controlled 1st Louisiana Native Guards.

After the war, he became active in the Republican Party and participated in Reconstruction state conventions. In 1868, Pinchback organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club in New Orleans. That same year, he was elected as a Louisiana state senator, where he became the state Senate president pro tempore. In 1871 he became acting lieutenant governor upon the death of Oscar Dunn, the first elected African American lieutenant governor of a U.S. state.

Pinchback was elevated to the Louisiana governorship on December 9, 1872 after impeachment charges were brought against his predecessor, Republican governor Henry Clay Warmoth.

So properly speaking Jindal is the first elected non-white Governor of Louisiana and a Republican to boot.

I do not think the Democrats are going to have the easy ride in 2008 that they expected. This is a harbinger. I think we are going to have another swing election. Corrupt incompetents are going to get tossed just as they were in 2006. Just look at how Congress stands with the American people. From September 19th.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.

Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

Yep. Bush is setting new lows with a drop of 1% to 29%. That is terrible. Congress too is setting new record dropping 3% to 11%. The Democrat and Republican core support runs around 30% give or take. Those numbers mean Republicans retain their core support and Democrats have lost 2/3s of their base. It sure looks like the making of a Democrat debacle in 008.

It might be a real good idea to keep matches out of the hands of Democrat Congress critters. We wouldn't want them setting fire to the place to cover up their incompetence.

Cross Posted at Classical Values