What Does Bobby Jindal's Win Tell Us?

Bobby Jindal, to the surprise of very few, was elected governor of Louisiana yesterday with 53% of the vote in an 11-way race. He carried all but 3 or 4 parishes; his win was sealed by his strong showing in the rural northern protestant part of the state.

Jindal ran as the good government candidate, the jobs and fiscal responsibility candidate, and his main opposition ended up being a pair of self-financed candidates. When this starts to sound familiar, let me know.

The election in Louisiana should be a wake-up call to the Mississippi Dems; running on four more years of beef plants, teddy bears, lawsuits, graft, and bad populist-socialist public policies will get you the same thing that it got the D's in Louisiana: Thrown out on your butts, slowly but surely. (Also, it's not that Louisiana politicians are more corrupt than Mississippi politicians; it's just that Mississippi politicians are better at not getting caught-or at least indicted).

With Espy and Bishop endorsing the governor, it appears that they understand that the D party is sinking this year. Of course, it won't be really understood until some folks are shown the door in November. It won't be understood in the offices of the Daily Journal and the Clarion Ledger at all, even then-of course, that's only because the rest of us were too stupid to listen to them.