"JINDAL SMOKED HER": That's the verdict on last night's final debate between Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal, according to a political science major from LSU quoted in the Lafayette Advertiser. Here's the full quote:
“Jindal smoked her,” said Darrell Kropog of Hammond, summing up the feelings of many of his classmates. “You can tell he thinks even faster than he talks because he never paused” in his answers.
A few paragraphs later there's this:
Amber Williams of Opelousas said Jindal “answered the questions better. She [Blanco] was babbling a lot, and I kind of felt sorry for her when the guy moderating the debate kept telling her to answer the questions.”
“It’s funny how she claims not to be asking people to vote for her because she’s woman, yet she said that four times,” said Carter LeBlanc, a female student from Houma.
Let me throw in my two anecdotal cents. I spoke to one of my best friends yesterday who lives in New Orleans to get his take on the race. My friend, we'll call him JB, doesn't really follow politics too closely. He does stay up on current events, however, and he's one of the smartest, most level-headed people you could ever hope to meet. He's also young (34), African-American, and traditionally inclined to vote Democratic.
Not this time. His impressions of the candidates (told to me before last night's debate) are very similar to the ones expressed above. Jindal comes off as extremely smart and well prepared with specific plans to deal with specific issues. JB said that Blanco, on the other hand, responds to questions about issues by proposing panels and commissions to "study" the problems.
But here's where I think the real difference in the race is: JB acknowledged that Jindal was more conservative than he liked or wanted. Yet he's still inclined to vote for Jindal anyway, primarily because Blanco represents, at least to him, the old guard of Louisiana politics. She's part of the machine, part of the good 'ol boy network (even though she's a woman) that is business as usual and that takes votes and voters in Louisiana (to use JB's words) "for granted."
Jindal, in both his appearance and his rhetoric, represents something new, different, and fresh. The symbolism is cliche but seems to be true: to many voters Jindal is the future and Blanco the past.
Now, as we noted yesterday, just how many of these younger, potential Jindal voters turn out is a different story. But absentee voting is already at a record high, which strongly favors Jindal. Also, the most recent tracking poll shows a 9-point lead for Jindal, but it did show an up-tick for Blanco yesterday. Stay tuned, we'll be making our final call tomorrow.
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