A Good Saturday For Republicans

Today, Saturday, October 20, 2007, has been a good day for the Republican party.
In Louisiana, the voters sent a very loud and clear message in electing Republican congressman Bobby Jindal as the next governor.
And there will be no runoff.
In the quirkiness that is Louisiana, this is technically the primary. However, if candidate A gets 50% plus one, the election is over. And, Mr. Jindal has 54% of the vote.
It is a repudiation of the inept "leadership" of governor Kathleen Blanco, Democrat. During the height of the crippling Hurricane Katrina, between her and the equally inept New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, an amazing American city was sent into utter and unnecessary chaos because they were too busy snipping each other. Hundreds of school buses sat idly in New Orleans while the poorest of the poor that did not leave for higher ground were held hostage to ineptness.
Somehow, Mr. Nagin was reelected mayor. But, Mrs. Blanco saw that she would not fare as well statewide and decided to retire. She did not want to get an asswhooping that Mr. Jindal was going to deliver.
And, in this quirky election, Mr. Jindal did deliver. And, Mr. Jindal has pledged to clean up the corruption that makes the corruption in Washington look like child's play. Good luck. Mr. Jindal will need it!
And in the Values Voters conference in Washington D. C., former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney scored a very narrow victory in the group's straw poll. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist preacher, came in a close second.
And in this unique poll, there was an internet version in which Mr. Romney won and the poll done on site in which Mr. Huckabee won. But overall, Mr. Romney won the straw poll by a narrow 30 votes. But, a win is a win and Mr. Romney was much better received by this crowd than former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, the supposed Republican front runner.
Despite the DDBMSM attempt to say that Republicans and in particular social conservatives, are in a funk, there are a lot of people ready to support the candidacy of Mitt Romney.
My theory about the funk is this.
Unlike the Democrats that have been out of the White House for seven plus years, the Republicans are still there. The Democrats are fired up. They really believe that they can put up a fire hydrant or Sen. Hilary Clinton and they will return to the promised land of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C. But, Republicans are just waiting to see how this all hashes out. When voting actually starts, the Republicans will be just as excited as Democrats, especially if Sen. Clinton does look like she will be the Democrat nominee for the White House.
I would ask all to look at 1988. Michael Barone http://usnews.com has and thinks this could be that kind of election.
But, I think that two very important things happened today that should get the Republican faithful excited.
Booby Jindal, from a family of Indian immigrants, is the next governor of Louisiana. And Mitt Romney is finally breaking through with influential evangelical leaders.
And that is a good thing for the Republican party and the United States.