"Personally, I predict Jindal to max out in the low to mid 40s. Louisiana still has a 20% racist vote, and that added to a united Democratic party ought to give Blanco a comfortable victory"

"After all, almost 60% voted for a Democrat for governor. We should be able to unite to pick up Louisiana."

Hmmm. The Republicans got 40 percent collectively, with 33 percent of that going to Jindal. So at least a third of the state already voted for the man, and you claim that 20% of the LA electorate is racist. Well, simple math seems do dictate that the Louisiana Democratic party is beating the Republicans hands down for the racist vote. Even if you assume everyone who voted for Downer did so because they were racists but Republicans, who couldn't vote for a democrat or for Jindal, that is only 5%. So at the minimum, the remaining 15% of the racists voted Democrat. I wonder which parts of the Democratic platform appeal so heavily to bigots? Opposition to school choice for low income minorities?

Of course this isn't the case, and the Louisiana electorate isn't dominated by racists either. Don't be so quick to assume that Jindal's skin color will sink him, just because he is running in a Southern state that leans against his party. By that Logic, Douglas Wilder was never elected Governor of Virginia, either.

Louisiana still has a 20% racist vote, and that added to a united Democratic party ought to give Blanco a comfortable victory.

Thanks for acknowledging that the racists will be voting Democrat, not Republican. Please let Andrew know...

I know Mark, I'm proud to let the GOP have the racist vote 99+% of the time. I hope that Blanco will beat Jindal because she is the more experienced candidate with better ideas for the state. That's what I hope, but we all know that unrepentant racists like David Duke have a strong following in Louisiana. He got into the runoff when he ran for governor in the early 90s, and even got 20+% of the vote when he ran for Congress in a large field (narrowly missed the runoff) in 1999. I'll be sad if Blanco wins the runoff on the strength of the bigot vote, but I'd rather the bigots elect her than have the Republicans be able to trot out their Indian-American governor to claim that they're "tolerant" and "inclusive" and "represent minority interests" when nothing could be further from the truth.