Louisiana 2003: Jindal beats Blanco

Jindal would be as ill-equipped if not moreso to handle Katrina as Blanco was. Given how well his brand of fiscal conservatism has worked now he might well have flubbed it far, far worse than she did. Whether or not the meme of "Bush hates blacks" would have gained as much traction after Katrina
with a Republican POC as governor as opposed to a white woman is an interesting question.
 
Just like Reagan twice in terms of being in what I call the civilian world by 2012. In 2008 State Treasurer John Kennedy came within 5 points of defeating Landrieu in a Democratic wave election, so perhaps with a strong GOP machine on the ground Landrieu goes down to defeat. This means even with Specter's defection the GOP will have 41 seats to maintain a filibuster.
 
I can't see how anyone, Democrat or Republican, FUBARs worse than Blanco. Nor do I see what his fiscal policies (CATO A-lister this year) have to do with disaster response. We saw a mini-example of what he'd likely do with Gustav back in 2008. Plus organizing his own private relief efforts in 2005 IOTL.

As for Bush hates blacks: so absurd as to be laughable among most voters, given his record. But given the reports you hear of Asian-black tension in schools among other places, I really don't see how having Jindal in office mitigates the "Bush hates blacks" meme. As I said, it depends who the public assigns responsibility to.

The Guard is under his control. Evacuation is shared by state and local authorities. IOTL the problem was not evacuating because Nagin refused to declare a state of emergency. If Nagin does that by listening to the meterologists, Jindal and the Feds and evacuates, then there will be few, if any casualties. Best-case scenario, if the levee rebuilding was initiated in 2004, then there's only* property left.

*Not that property is insignifcant, far from it. But better property than loss of human life.
 
Well, as for "Bush hates blacks," look at the source... Anybody who takes political advice from Kanye deserves to look stupid. I say it applies to the same individuals who believed it in the first place, none of whom ever considered voting for Bush.
 
I can't see how anyone, Democrat or Republican, FUBARs worse than Blanco. Nor do I see what his fiscal policies (CATO A-lister this year) have to do with disaster response. We saw a mini-example of what he'd likely do with Gustav back in 2008. Plus organizing his own private relief efforts in 2005 IOTL.

As for Bush hates blacks: so absurd as to be laughable among most voters, given his record. But given the reports you hear of Asian-black tension in schools among other places, I really don't see how having Jindal in office mitigates the "Bush hates blacks" meme. As I said, it depends who the public assigns responsibility to.

The Guard is under his control. Evacuation is shared by state and local authorities. IOTL the problem was not evacuating because Nagin refused to declare a state of emergency. If Nagin does that by listening to the meterologists, Jindal and the Feds and evacuates, then there will be few, if any casualties. Best-case scenario, if the levee rebuilding was initiated in 2004, then there's only* property left.

*Not that property is insignifcant, far from it. But better property than loss of human life.

The response for Gustav also had the benefit of seeing how not to respond to a disaster on that scale. 2005 was a bit if a different animal.
 
Jindal could lean on Nagin to declare emergency and get the evacuation going. Best Jindal option would be a POTUS win in 2012, which I see as possible, especially if Obama doesn't win in '08. Clinton vs. Jindal would be interesting.
 
Just the age optics are quite striking, like in 1996 and 2008. Hillary's going to be debating a man young enough to be her son. The debates would be a draw because they're evenly matched on content and have a similar aggressive style in going for the kill. I do think he easily wins the likeability contest because Hillary, to say the least, is not that competitive in one of those. Depends on the economy in the final analysis. Hillary's a polarizing figure and not terribly appealing to Indies. Jindal has had approval ratings varying from the mid-60s to low 70s during his governorship so far, comparable to her husband's during his presidency. That's because all Republicans, overwhelming majorities of indies, plus even a majority of Dems, approve of his job performance. He isn't a man easy to dislike on a personal level like Hillary is, even if you disagree with all his policy stances.

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