David, as thrilled as I was to see Bobby Jindal win as governor in my home state last weekend, I strongly caution against reading the victory as any kind of bellwether for how the 2008 vote may go for the GOP nationally. Both Jindal and the political climate in which he ran were singular. Louisiana has suffered through Katrina and its aftermath, which revealed what everybody already knew to be true: that Louisiana is the national leader in corruption and incompetence. Jindal has the reputation in Louisiana of being both squeaky clean and hypercompetent — probably the only leading Louisiana politician about which that can be said. What’s more, the Democrat who beat him in the 2003 governor’s race, Kathleen Blanco, handled Katrina so badly that she destroyed her own political career, and chose not to run again. The state’s voters were primed for a do-over, and they were voting as well out of disgust with the Louisiana status quo.
I really do believe that Republicans outside of Louisiana who think there are lessons for them in the Jindal win are engaging in wishful thinking.
Let it be noted that Jindal ran as an unabashed religious conservative (he’s a Catholic convert).