re: Mary Landrieu Insults Us Again

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There’s one more thing to know about Jindal: He was the victim of a racist attack by Democrats. In the governor’s race, Jindal was leading Democrat Kathleen Blanco in polls–and the Democrats went all out. At a rally in New Orleans, the president of College Democrats of America, Ashley Bell, said Jindal “is Arab American” and “the Republican token attempt to mend bridges long burnt with the Arab-American community.” Bell also referred to “Bush’s personal ‘Do Boy’ Bobby Jindal.” Blanco was quoted as telling a Democrat eliminated in the primary that “a Hindu out-Catholic’d both of us.”

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But it was a TV ad in the final week of the campaign that was pivotal. The spot began with a screaming headline, “Wake Up, Louisiana,” and concluded by asserting, “They hope we won’t wake up until it’s too late.” The ad was reminiscent of efforts to rally white Southerners against supporters of racial integration and civil rights legislation. And it showed a picture of Jindal with disheveled hair, a picture that some Republicans claimed was touched up to make Jindal’s skin look darker. Jindal wound up losing to Blanco in areas where the so-called Bubba vote–white backers of Ku Klux Klansman David Duke in earlier elections–is strong. He lost statewide by 52 to 48 percent.

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Jindal never complained publicly about the ad, which criticized his record as hospital chief, or other attacks. Nor did he air a rebuttal. To this day, he’s philosophical about his defeat. “I got a faith that sustains me,” he says. “I desperately wanted to be governor,” but from God’s perspective, “it doesn’t make a difference” who wins a governor’s election. “I’ve got every reason to be grateful. I didn’t feel any regrets. We tried everything we could. When God closes one door, he opens another.”‘

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