Liberal Senator Landrieu

You've made two interesting points, and I'll respond to each.

President Bush will probably try to help the eventual Republican candidate, but three things could interfere. They are:

First, no matter how much time President Bush tries to spend here in November and December, the Democrats will send every idiot they can to muddy the water. The more the runoff election becomes a circus atmosphere, the more it will benefit the Democrats.
Secondly, if we are much closer to a war with Iraq, President Bush may not be able to leave D.C. without appearing to have abandoned national security for the sake of political gain. When I said he'd practically live here to support Suzanne Haik Terrell, I hadn't figured on the Iraq situation.
Thirdly, he may not feel very comfortable supporting the eventual Republican candidate too obviously. Dr. Cooksey has an excellent chance of being in the runoff, and his "diaperhead" remark will be played and replayed if he is. I think enough Louisiana voters agree with the way he felt that he might still win, but President Bush will be afraid to associate with him too closely. Tony Perkins is the underdog candidate, but he still has a strong chance. He is endorsed by Dr. James Dobson and many prominent religious conservatives. While President Bush has enjoyed the support of these people, he hasn't associated with them too closely because he is afraid of the negative feelings that they stir in soccer moms. He would help Mr. Perkins, but he might not help as much as you would think.

I hadn't thought about how campaign finance reform would affect the runoff, and it is a good point to raise. My initial thought is that it may not have a big effect. Most people will just give directly to the candidates in the runoff, and that money would be "hard money." Undoubtedly, a huge amount of hard money would flow into the state on both sides. The best news would be for this election to be the test case where campaign finance reform is overturned.

WFTR
Bill

Sorry I am late with this response..but if I am not mistaken former Gov Edwards is the one who came up with this current system. He was supposedly tired of fighting a furious battle to win the Democratic nomination, which was the real prize, while the GOP could wait with their nominee and have money and energy for the General election. Louisiana was big time democratic, so they usually won, but Edwards came up with this to get the election over with quicker. Yes it did produce a sorry runoff between Duke and Edwards himself, but you are right about spoilers not being a problem aka Perot. Also, Jesse Ventura might not have been elected here. Jesse only got about 37 percent of the vote..and they called it quits after that.

As for lying landrieu, I hope she at least has to make a runoff appearance. Louisiana has a sad record of re-electing incumbents. Except for Governors, rarely has a senator or congressman been voted out of office..they have to die, quit or be arrested. And seeing the fact that she stole the last election, I was hoping she would have been in trouble..but I don't think so..let's hope I am wrong..

I'm a lifelong resident of La. The original post is correct. Mary is running very hard to the right of her real ideology. Of particular note is her taking credit for being pro-military. We have a SAC base here in La. at Barksdale in Shreveport. She uses the print media (very liberal) to brainwash the idiots of this state (about 90% of the population) into believing that Barksdale would close down if it were not for her efforts. She is a female version of Bill Clinton.
She has the New Orleans (Haiti North) vote locked up and they use a lot of bang-an-haulem on voting day. But the rest of the state is conservative and might elect a Republican if one can get into the run-off.

Thanks for the correction and clarification on how we arrived at the system we have now. I also hope you are wrong about Landrieu's strength in November. We need this seat for the GOP.

WFTR
Bill

Thanks for the words of support. I hope we can mobilize our people both in November and December.

Actually I think the GOP should be running ads against lying landrieu about her vote against ashcroft..i mean she broke senate tradition to vote for the president's nominee..a former colleague..under orders from hillary and kennedy..and john breaux CAN NOT come to her defense because at least he showed some back bone and voted for him..my two cents..what do u think?

I think that's an excellent idea. The best part is being able to draw distinctions between her and Breaux. I wish that the NRSC had the intelligence to use that idea.