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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (15433)	11/6/2003 3:12:03 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793670

He startled me by saying that Bush getting into Iraq without a solid exit strategy was "downright criminal." That's a phrase that got real popular after Nam. It was my objection to Bosnia. And we are still there, propping up the UN Bureaucrats. We don't have an "Exit strategy" on Iraq because we are never going to "Exit." Not in the next 10 years, at least. We need bases there to protect our interests in the ME. We will draw down to about 50K troops on a permanent basis by the end of next year. They will be troops we no longer need in Europe. Expect a lot of them to be up in the Kurdish area.

To: Lane3 who wrote (15433)	11/6/2003 3:15:32 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793670

Good blog today from "PoliPundit" _________________________________ November 06, 2003 Jindal's Secret As regular readers know, Bobby Jindal, the conservative 32-year-old Indian-American Republican candidate for governor in Louisiana, is running neck-and-neck with "moderate" Democratic Lt. Governor Kathleen Blanco. Keep in mind that this is Louisiana, the same state which, about a decade ago, featured the "governor's race from hell" between notoriously crooked Democrat Edwin Edwards and former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke (both are now in jail.) And remember that there have been only two Republican governors elected in Louisiana since reconstruction. And Louisiana is the only state never to have elected a Republican US senator. How could such a state end up electing a 32-year-old Indian-American Republican whizkid governor? The answer lies in Jindal's carefully calibrated campaign strategy of being all things to all people. Start with the obvious issue of race. Jindal is neither black nor white. That immediately allows him to sidestep the long history these two groups have had in Louisiana and allows him to paint himself as a neutral outsider. A certain percentage of African-American and white voters will see his race as a negative; but, overall, it allows him to appeal to both groups. To whites, he's a whip-smart, conservative minority candidate, exactly the kind of minority candidate they feel comfortable voting for. To blacks, he's not white, which is reason enough to absolve him of any suspicion of racism and make him exactly the kind of conservative Republican they feel comfortable voting for. That's why prominent African-American leaders have taken the unprecedented step of endorsing a conservative Republican for governor. Go on to his youth and political inexperience, which would ordinarily be a net negative in a state that elects seasoned politicos. Jindal uses his age and political inexperience as a cudgel, proudly proclaiming "I'm not a politician. I'm a problem-solver." Meanwhile, his extensive (and successful) experience as an administrator in various high-level positions allows him to claim that he'll make a competent governor. What about his conservatism? Well, when you're running against an opponent who's almost as conservative as you are, it's very hard for her to draw distinctions on policy issues. In addition, Jindal has different messages for different audiences. On talk radio, he airs ads touting his conservatism. On TV, he uses the "I'm a problem solver" theme to appeal to independent and moderate voters. To African-Americans, he promises economic hope and opportunity and a willing ear (Jindal won the endorsement of the New Orleans-based African-American BOLD group in large part by courting them more than Blanco did.) Through a combination of nature, nurture, intellect, political skill and niche marketing, Jindal has become a Schwarzeneggerian Rorschach blot. People see in him whatever they want to see. Bobby Jindal has managed to achieve every politician's dream: He has become all things to all people. posted by PoliPundit at 10:07 AM Link to this post McAuliffe Democrats are squabbling, yet again, about DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe's future. You've got to admire McAuliffe's skills as a survivor. While he's been DNC chair, Democrats have lost election after election. Following the historic 2002 mid-term debacle, they've now lost the governorships of California, Kentucky and Mississippi. In about a month, Democrats have gone from 24 governorships to 21. 54 percent of Americans used to live in states with Democratic governors; now the number is 39 percent. While all this was happening, Republicans, who now control the White House, House, Senate, a majority of governorships and, some would argue, the federal judiciary, have gone through three RNC chairmen - Jim Gilmore, Marc Racicot and Ed Gillespie. I look forward to McAuliffe's Iraqi-information-minister-like spinning of the results if Republicans win the Louisiana governorship, the last one up this year. posted by PoliPundit at 7:11 AM Link to this post polipundit.com