By Libby
People have been scoffing at me for two years now for predicting that 08 was going to be the year of the anti-incumbent and maybe they'll think I'm making too much of Bobby Jindals' win today but I see it as an omen that the Democratic party would do well to heed. I didn't follow this race so I don't know the varibles, but I look at the history of the state and Democrats held the Governor's Mansion for 100 years until 1980. Until today they held it for four out of six times. Now it's four out of seven.
Taken in context with last week's Tsongas squeaker, there's a message here for every entrenched, conventional wisdom career politician. The people are restless. They may hate the president and they kicked out the GOP in 06 but they're going to be just as willing to kick out the Democrats in 08 unless they deliver some change before the election. Soothing excuses, vague promises and running on a platform of -- at least I'm not a Repuclican -- is not going to cut it. As we can see today in Lousiana, they may blame Bush and the GOP for the failures of Katrina, but they're blaming the Democrats for not fixing it.
But neither should the GOP get too jolly over the phenonmenon. It says something big when the winner in question in an 11 man field is, by all definitions around these parts, among both black and white voters, a furriner and not a true 'Murikan. Not that pandering to the fundies didn't help him, but I don't think Jindal won because he was a Republican and supports the anti-sciences. He won because he was perceived as at least a chance at something completely different.
Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert may well be on to something with running on both tickets. I had forgotten there was once a Democratic-Republican party. Maybe he could use it as a basis for establishing this new coalition that Sully is talking about tonight.
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