A Word on Jindal's Savvy

A sharp friend of mine noted to me that my post blaming Bobby Jindal for the Dems' losses in LA-02 and especially LA-04 was a bit off the mark. Thinking about it, I agree with her point, though on a limited ground. Let me be clear in saying that if I were Jindal, I would have done the exact same thing. Politics is a contact sport, and he made a move to benefit his party. As it turned out, his changing the date of the election worked perfectly to the Republican Party's gain. I personally may not like the end result, but I absolutely respect Jindal's savvy. Heck, I am a guy who while attacking his motives, praised the political guts and astonishing gumption of Gov. Haley Barbour when he moved the Roger Wicker-Ronnie Musgrove special election to the bottom on the ballot for no apparent reason other than that he wanted to help water-down black support of Musgrove.

That being said, while I surely give a tip of political cap to Jindal, I still believe his move of the election cost Democrats the Fourth District, as higher black turnout on November 4 would have basically assured Paul Carmouche's victory (as he lost the December special by 356 votes). In terms of the Second, Bill Jefferson would have won easily had his race been November 4, and he was killed by low turnout, but only he is to blame for the corruption problems that put him in such a precarious position in the first place.