Here comes Bobby Jindal, we hope

From a distance, things seem to be breaking Bobby Jindal’s way in the Louisiana gubernatorial race. Reader Greg Nesmith has filed this report from Baton Rouge: “Make no mistake about it. Bobby Jindal is a full-fledged conservative running on President Bush’s coattails. He has been using a series of radio ads for quite a while now where the narrator says, ‘This is the Louisiana Conservative Radio Network. And now, former Bush administration official, Bobby Jindal.’ From there, the spot vaires featuring Jindal talking about taxes, gun control, whatever. But it’s the boldness of the ad that amazes me. He clearly labels himself a conservative and links himself to Bush time and time again.
“Things sure are different from eight years ago when Mike Foster was elected as a Republican by claiming to be ‘an independent.’ His campaign ads never so much as mentioned his party affiliation. Now the shoe is on the other foot. I can’t find the words ‘Kathleen Blanco, Democrat’ anywhere in public. With her touting her conservative beliefs like her pro-life stance, you’d struggle to know that they represented two different parties if Jindal weren’t clearly displaying the GOP banner.
“I believe this reflects the national trend. Elephants are in; donkeys are out. Claiming to be a conservative Democrat doesn’t cut it any more. All of the conservatives are voting Republican now. The Dems are reduced to hiding from their party and hoping no one notices that ‘D’ next to their name on Election Day.”
This AP account of the race suggests that it is a dead heat based on the most recent poll of registed voters, with nearly 20 percent undecided or not sayin’. That suggests to me that Jindal is in fact up in the race with likely voters, consistent with the other polls.
My favorite part of the story, however, is the notice taken of a subset of Jindal’s supporters: “Some rural men in pickup trucks have been swayed by Jindal’s religious fervor, and their bumper stickers read ‘Bubbas for Bobby.'” Aren’t those the guys Howard Dean is looking for?

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