John McGinnis, LA political writer, to discuss governor's race now on CNN's "Capital Gang"

CNN | 11-08-03 | Theodore R.

[Theodore R.]

McGinnis, who wrote "The Last Hayride" about LA politics, will appear shortly. He has considerable knowledge about the Blanco-Jindal rivalry.

[gbunch]

Keep us posted! I don't have cable, but would love to hear what he has to say.

I get all my news from the REAL source: FreeRepublic!

[blam]

Don't watch CNN.

[Theodore R.]

McGinnis said that Blanco can win with 35 percent of the "white vote" and 90 percent of the black vote. He said that she can receive that, with John Breaux working strongly for her. He thinks Jindal is likely to be hurt by anti-Mike Foster sentiment. He said that Jindal did not invite Bush to campaign for fear that Bush's presence would lead wavering moderates to support Blanco.

McGinnis also noted that the Democrats are claiming again that the President is trying to destroy the LA sugar industry by lifting tariffs on imported sugar. This sugar issue was raised successfully eleven months ago in the reelection of Sen. Mary Landrieu. Bush's presence on behalf of senatorial candidate Suzanne Terrell seemed to be of relatively little help, he noted.

McGinnis said that Jindal's "dark skin" (I don't recall the exact words he used) is NOT hurting him in former segregationist areas. Jindal is of Asian "Indian" ethnicity. He is a 32-year-old former Rhodes scholar who formerly worked for Rep. Jim McCrery, R-LA, Foster, and Bush.

McGinnis said that the Nagin endorsement is helping Jindal more among moderate whites than with blacks, who he said will vote loyally for Blanco. He did say a slightly larger black middle class vote could materialize for Jindal.

He did not predict the outcome of the race. The panelists, all of them, repeatedly mispronounce Jindal's name. It's JIN DLE, not JIN DAHL. Not even crusty ol' Bob Novak could get the pronounciation correct.

[gbunch]

Sounds like this guy is somewhat out of touch with what we're hearing on the actual scene. Nagin's endorsement seems to be making a large impact among voters across the board. Two or three polls show Jindal with 12-15% of the black vote. As for the anti-Foster sentiment, I think Jindal allayed those fears long ago. He is very much a conservative, and his own man. He is most definitely not another Foster. (RINO turd.)

I was concerned about the "secret sugar deal" and posted those concerns yesterday. I even emailed them to Jindal's HQ. I predicted that Blank-o would tie in to the "sugar" issue, and it looks like she has: http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/110803/new_blanco001.shtml

However, Jindal is obviously one step ahead of the RATS: On his itinerary today were several meetings with sugar farmers specifically to address the issue. He is on record as being against allowing the importation of cheap sugar:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/110803/new_sugar001.shtml

It seems to me the RATS are using the Landrieu-Terrell playbook 100%. I hope they stick to it. As I said previously, Blank-o is much weaker than Landrieu, and Jindal much stronger than Terrell.

[Theodore R.]

It seems to me that Jindal is running a much more effective campaign than Suzanne Terrell did eleven months ago. Still he must fight the institutions of LA politics to prevail, and the biggest institution of them all --"King" Breaux. If they support Jindal, LA voters will have to repudiate Breaux, something they have never done.