Bobby Jindal's Brilliant Victory Speech (Louisiana Gov. election):

[blitzen]

"The People of Louisiana are God-Fearing, Freedom-Loving People"

no shit, i just heard him say it on TV. This is the genius Rhodes Scholar. The only realm in which he is "smart" is blatent, egregious demagogic pandering.

[RB TexLa]

1. He actually is very smart. He just panders to the right wing.

If he were to govern as a non-partisan technocrat he'd probably do well, but that isn't going to happen.

[blitzen]

2. i agree with you...But his track record shows that the pandering outweighs the rationality...

I do hope that he governs well (after all, I live here), but I fear that he is way too much in bed with the theocrats...

[Hippo_Tron]

23. Jindal thinks he can be President

Good luck on that one.

[SlowDownFast]

3. Fuck! Jindal won?

Bobby Jindal is a fucking snake-in-the-grass.

I don't live in LA anymore, but I certainly feel sorry for y'all...

Damn.

[blitzen]

5. yeah, about 53%...avoided a run-off, which he may have lost n/t

[SteppingRazor]

4. What does Jindal's eletion say about Landrieu's re-election chances, if anything?

I've been kinda convinced we're going to lose this Senate seat for a while now, and this douche bag winning a statewide election isn't doing a lot to alay that fear.

[skipos]

6. Now that Jindal is governor, the Repubs don't have a very strong candidate

to run against Landrieu.

[SteppingRazor]

7. Kennedy's all but the annointed GOP challenger, no? n/t

[skipos]

9. Dunno. But I am under the impression he isn't as strong as Jindal. nt

[blitzen]

10. post-Katrina Louisiana is probably more Repuke,,,,

due to the loss of the "New Orleans vote"

But elections here are weird. If there had been just one major Dem candidate instead of two, then Jindal (the only Repuke) would have been forced into a run-off--and I think he may well have lost.

My thoughts on Landrieu are not objective, so take them with a grain of salt. She is the one and only Dem that I have ever hoped would lose. She is our Lieberman, and the Senate would be better off without her.

[SteppingRazor]

14. Well, sure, Landrieu's got her problems, but...

I'll take her over a Republican any day, if only for one more Democratic seat in the Senate. If absolutely everything swings our way in 2008, we could wind up with a filibuster=proof 60 seats. Mind you, I don't think that will happen, but it's an actual possibility.

[BurningDog]

15. Not necessarily.

I don't think the problem was that there was two major Democrat candidates on the ballot, it was that there wasn't even one major Democrat candidate.

[blitzen]

20. you're right, those Dems were not "major"....

and a big-name Dem such as Breaux might have defeated Jindal.....


I just meant that of the 4 candidates who got more than 0%, 2 were Dems, 1 was a Repuke, and 1 was a "No Party"....If the Dems hadn't split their vote, Jindal would be in a run-off. Obvious and elementary, but you would think that they would figure this out....The solution, of course, is a more "normal" process--i.e., primaries.

[BurningDog]

24. I think they're changing the primary system next year for national offices

to a more traditional primary contest.

There is also a pending Supreme Court case from Washington challenging a primary system similar to ours. If its declared unconstitutional, I'm sure there'll be a lawsuit filed here also. See :
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=186718

[KingFlorez]

16. A lot of people thought she would lose in 2002

Which wasn't a good year for Democrats and she ended up winning. I think she can pull off another win, seeing as next year probably will be favorable to Democrats.

[SteppingRazor]

19. Yeah, but 2002 was pre-Katrina.

Without all those Democratic New Orleans votes, it's gonna be really tough to swing a Democratic statewide victory in LA, no?

[SoCalDem]

8. Piyush Jindal won already? If the ballot sayd "Bobby", that's not his legal name

from wikipedia

Jindal (pronounced IPA: /ˈdʒɪndəl/) was born in Baton Rouge to recently arrived Indian immigrants, Amar and Raj Jindal, who were attending graduate school. According to family lore, Jindal adopted the name Bobby after watching The Brady Bunch television program, at age four and has been known by that name ever since, as a civil servant, politician, student, and writer. Legally though his name remains Piyush Jindal<1>.

[RB TexLa]

18. You can choose to have a nickname or shorten name put on the ballot

[moondust]

27. "Bobby"

Must be a white guy.

[pretzel4gore]

11. bush, patriot act, no fly lists, war on drugs, foxnews etc

where is the freedom that they love?
also, maybe it's time the pigmedia got neutered, their nutz cut off, and put into the compost. It's pigmedia which sets up the limited contexts where pandering to righteous ninny reagan fan club members is almost the only way ahead that the pigmedia allow. The peoples' holy book, the bible, says they're 'sheep w/out a shepherd'...yet they put up with enforced nonsense from elected reps?

[The Straight Story]

12. Quick question - is he wrong?

Or is that an accurate depiction of things?

[blitzen]

21. hard to say...but based on anecdotal evidence, I would say he's wrong:

I'm not "God-fearing," and while I would celebrate certain notions of freedom, I can't call myself "Freedom-loving"

[HowHasItComeToThis]

13. BY EXECUTIVE ORDER I RENAME BATON ROUGE TO

BANGALORE.


HA HA HA HA

[RB TexLa]

17. I'm sorry but how would that joke have gone had he been an African-American Republican elected?

[NOLALady]

36. Not to worry.

AA Republican or Democrat will not have a snowball's chance in hell in Louisiana in my lifetime. These people would elect an immigrant of color, before they would elect an AA who's family has been here at least 250 years. And, yes, many people here think Piyush is a Tom.
I live in a very red area. Today, my daughter told me her History teacher said we now have an A Hole for Governor. And he used the whole word. I guess that I was a bit surprised as I really believe that 90% of this community supported him.

[Feron]

22. Oh that's nothing...

Since I'm still a registered Republican, my answering machine was full of their spam promoting "family values" and the war against "the culture of corruption". David Vitter also left me a message endorsing some candidate (not Jindal). LMAO

The fools in Louisiana elected an incompetent pandering used car salesman who destroyed the DHH and put forth the minimum effort (if that) in his Congressional job. So now instead of "bad" corruption, we are now going to harken a new era of "good" corruption. Fuck the poor!

Let's hope Jindal does minimal damage this time around. That's our only hope.

And it's a shame we can't get rid of the David Duke backwash in this state as well.

Freedom-loving my ass. These people are afraid of freedom because true freedom means gays, empowered women, sex, and asserting personal independence.

Well I did my part and voted. FWIW.

[JI7]

25. he is like the indian version of "uncle tom"

Newt Gingrich is intelligent also. doesn't make them any less scumbags.

[John Kerry VonErich]

28. OK this is getting racist

So people here disagree with him. Race has nothing to do with it.

[SoCalDem]

29. Actually race has a LOT to do with it.

Had he run as Piyush Jindal (his REAL name), I doubt that he would have won his FIRST election./.to anything.

I'm guessing that a lot of voters probably could not identify him in a line-up.. They see the name "Bobby", and that's goos enough for them..especially if it has an "R" next to it.

Republicans have been grooming their "uncle toms" for a long time..

Colin Powell
Condi
Michael Steele
Viet Dinh
Ron Christie
Vinush DaSouza
Clarence Thomas
etc

They deliberately seek out "people of color" to brandish the republican message.. They do it for TWO reasons. They might accidentally trick other people of color into thinking the republicans ARE warm & fuzzy, and they also protect themselves from the perennial issues of their homophobic/racist/bigoted mainstream :)

The actual "Toms" are happy as clams, since they are being wooed, and often get high paying , career-enhancing jobs, and all they have to do is to toe the company line :)

[RB TexLa]

31. Many people have had their nicknames or shortened names on the ballot in Louisiana

He's hardly the first to do that.

Bennett Johnston was never listed as "John Johnston," he had "J. Bennett Johnston" listed at his request.

Jimmie Davis always had "Jimmie" instead of "James."

And of course L.D. "none of the above" Knox. He tried to get his name at the bottom of the ballot for whatever he ran for but couldn't.


Here are ones on the ballot Saturday

Governor

Anthony "Tony G" Gentile, Other
"Bobby" Jindal, Republican
M. V. "Vinny" Mendoza, Democrat
Arthur D. "Jim" Nichols, No Party

Lt. Governor

Norris "Spanky" Gros, Jr., No Party
"Sammy" Kershaw, Republican
"Mitch" Landrieu, Democrat

Secretary of State

"Jay" Dardenne, Republican
"R." Wooley, Democrat

Attorney General

James D. "Buddy" Caldwell, Democrat

[JI7]

33. but didn't he leave off the "Piyush" entirely from the ballots ?

[RB TexLa]

34. John Leigh Dardenne left the "John Leigh" entirely off the ballot

So what? If the man wants to be called Bobby who gives a shit. Just like if Jay Dardenne wants to be called Jay.

[JI7]

35. because he did it for political reasons

he just comes off as a kiss ass to certain type sin the Republican Party. a need to be accepted by certain types.

[NOLALady]

37. They actually thought that Piyush would be a shoe in

during the last election. They believed blacks were so stupid they would vote for him because his skin was dark. And they thought the macho, sexist mentality would keep the whites from voting for Blanco.

I'm disgusted, but I guess they will have the Governor that they deserve. We'll be dead last in everything forever because these idiots vote against their best interests.

[JI7]

38. well, Jindal did play up his dark skin in the african american community

how he can identify and all that crap. and that asshole ray nagin another bush ass kisser endorsed Jindal didn't he ?

Jindal is simply a whore .

[JI7]

30. i'm indian like he is

and like him i grew up in a Hindu family . but i am an atheist now.

in his case he became a Catholic for political reasons. i wish this had been brought up before. he should have been made to comment on the relgion thing. maybe some of the indians who supported him would not longer have.

[Peace Patriot]

26. I don't see how we can draw any conclusions from elections that conducted using

electronic voting machines run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls. The vote counting system is so non-transparent and so insider riggable that real representatives of the people have little or no chance--except perhaps in a blowout vote that might catch the programmers of the machines by surprise. This should be our first topic of discussion when assholes get "elected"--is the election verifiable? And if it is not, then the results tell us nothing about what the voters may really want, they only tell us who gets the power, based on an inherently fraudulent vote counting system. The ability of rightwing Bushite e-voting corporations to directly rig the outcome, without detection, is added to the burdens of the filthy campaign contribution system and the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, and their "swift-boatings" and other lies, to make our election system so fraudulent, that no result can be trusted. We are being ruled over by people with illegitimate power. We MUST restore transparent vote counting--vote counting that everyone can see and understand--as our first priority, and the bottom line condition of democracy, or we will see our country continue to be lied to, looted and destroyed.

[RB TexLa]

32. Except most of our voting machines look like this

I've been there as a candidate's representative when they open them.