Monday, January 22, 2007

The cat's outta the leaky bag

One of the worst kept secrets of this young century is now official...Bobby Jindal will take a second shot at Louisiana's governor's chair. His announcement, "After much prayer and consultation with my wife..." indicates he will not begin the long and arduous campaign until this summer because "...people grow weary of the barrage of charges and counter charges." Amen to that one, brother.
Jindal also says he wants to avoid the "...D.C.-style politics with mudslinging, and instead focus on solving the problems that our state faces." That, of course, is a hope which will only partially be realized. There most likely will not be the D.C.-style politics, complete with mudslinging. Instead, we can look forward to good ol' fashioned Louisiana-style politics and the accompanying mudhauling and dumping which is an integral part of the game we citizens have come to love and enjoy.
With Jindal's "official" announcement comes a couple of questions which will be answered in the pertnear future; will state Sen. Walter Boasso continue to dip his toe into the political waters and become another Republican in the race for Gov. Kathleen Blanco's redocrated office, and will an as-yet undecided term-limited Democrat decide to switch parties and get into the race. If so, will that heretofore unidentified do so just to toss a monkey wrench into the well-oiled Republican state machine? That is, according to the southern rumor mill, a very distinct possibility. Names, of course, are being withheld.
Another question making the rounds now that Jindal has declared is whether or not his candidacy will chase off a couple of high profile Democrats who are allegedly being courted to enter the race despite the fact that Blanco is the party's incumbent (an interesting fact in itself...that members of her own party might be considering taking a shot at the governorship). We continue to hear that John Breaux, former U.S. Senator and current mega-bucks-earning lobbyist, is the preferred choice of some high-ranking Dems in the state, and that U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon is being urged to consider jumping into the race. That may make good conversation, but don't look for either to pull the trigger.
And there's one more Democrat out there who would dearly love to get into the governor's race, but don't look for state Treasurer John Kennedy to make that move. There are still vibes that Kennedy would switch to the Republican party (if asked) and challenge Blanco, but he will not make that switch to take on Jindal. Instead, watch Kennedy's body language when the time comes to decide which R will slug it out with our senior U.S. Senator, Mary Landrieu. Kennedy just may be the party's banner carrier.
Back to Jindal...he's polling mightily against Blanco, and even tossing prospective (?) candidate Foster Campbell into the mix doesn't knock Jindal below 56 percent. A Campbell candidacy does, though, take Blanco from a disappointing mid-30s rating to roughly 31 percent. That, friends, does not bode well for the incumbent.
It's still a long time until we go to the polls. Until then, we're going to be bombarded with claims and rebuttals, credit taking and blame assigning. Here's hoping Louisiana voters do a little background check on all the candidates. If we listen to the campaign stump language, we're gonna be more confused that Edwin Edwards at sentencing time, and almost as disappointed.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bobby Jindal will fail again. People don't like his looks. He is not really that smart, either. He talks so damn fast, no one can understand him, therefore they think he is brilliant. Lord help us if he becomes governor. He has never held a real job in his life.

10:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Campbell is going to get into this race, he needs to do it soon and in a high-profile way. A lot of people don't know what a Public Service Commissioner does. If they knew how he has gone to bat for No. La. with some of the big oil and gas companies , they might take him more seriously. He will have to spend some money to explain the oil & gas processing tax, though, or it will bite him where it hurts. Most people don't understand that, either.

2:56 PM  

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