Well whaddayaknow?

Republicans can’t win in ’08, it’s a pending national disaster, the Democrats will sweep into power …

Hold that thought a second. In Louisiana, Republican Bobby Jindal—a 36-year-old Oxford educated son of Indian immigrants, and a traditionalist Roman Catholic—won the election for governor of that state this weekend, tallying 54% of the vote in a field of 11 candidates (Jindal’s winning more than half the votes avoided a runoff election in November).

Political analysts noted that Jindal, a congressman who narrowly lost the governor’s race to current Gov. Kathleen Blanco four years ago, got many “buyer remorse” votes because of the Democratic governor’s bungling in the Hurricane Katrina crisis. How bad was her leadership? Just try and picture New York Mayor Rudy Guliani crying in front of cameras and microphones after 9-11; sends chills up and down your spine, doesn’t it? And yet, that’s what Blanco did in the midst of the worst disaster ever to hit her state. Her general ineptness (with the one exceptional instance of using the state's natural resources boats to rescue trapped residents) led to her not seeking another term as governor.

The “buyer remorse” votes indicate that Louisiana voters know who REALLY was responsible for the chaos that followed Katrina; blaming President Bush just doesn’t wash anymore (no pun intended). Now, if only New Orleans voters had a similar clue and thrown Mayor Ray “Evacuation Buses Under Water” Nagin out of office (Nagin couldn’t even explain to NBC’s Brian Williams why those buses-turned-submarines were never mobilized to evacuate residents in the first place)…

Republican Party Leadership: Looking for that candidate who could unite the party and give you a real winning chance five years from now (should Hillary rise to power and wreak havoc on our nation)? Here he is! Or how about drafting him for vice president for ’08? Maybe I’m jumping the gun, but Jindal comes off as a truly intelligent leader (unlike the pseudo intellectual John Kerry, whose college grade point average was actually one point lower than President Bush’s GPA), who has a strong moral backbone. I’ve known about Jindal for about 15 years, after reading some articles he wrote in the ultra-Catholic magazine New Oxford Review. Putting aside any theological differences I would have with him, Jindal’s articles were sharply written and showed a deep moral conviction rooted in his Catholic faith (not the flaky “As a Catholic, I’m personally against abortion or homosexual marriage, however…” ilk we’re so used to hearing).

Jindal’s election also shows that ’08 is not a done deal for the Democrats, even with Hillary’s media machines (including Media Matters for America) humming at full speed to trash anyone who opposes her. Hillary still has high unfavorable ratings in recent polls; her party will either have to sail with “Billary II” (with Barak Obama’s shallow campaign running out of steam) or draft their Nobel Prize-winning green crusader Al Gore. It could be REAL interesting … and readers, it’s never too early to pray that God’s will be done in the ’08 election.