Free Republic

NEW YORK— Here’s an interesting little sidebar of our system of government confirmed recently by the crack Countdown research staff: no Presidential candidate’s concession speech is legally binding. The only determinants of the outcome of election are the reports of the state returns boards and the vote of the Electoral College. That’s right. Richard Nixon may have phoned John Kennedy in November, 1960, and congratulated him through clenched teeth. But if the FBI had burst into Kennedy headquarters in Chicago a week later and walked out with all the file cabinets and a bunch of employees with their raincoats drawn...

I could not find a link to the poll but WWL radio out of NEW Orleans is reporting on the hour and the half our than a new poll out today (Southern Media Opinion Research-Dr Bernie Pinsonette) shows Rep David Vitter increasing his lead on the field to 49%, while John Kennedy is at 17% and Chris "Breaux Light" John is at 16%. It was also reported that the pollster thought there was better than 50% probability that Vitter would win the race outright in the primary. For those who don't know, Louisiana has an open primary system which will...

When the death of Pat Tillman occurred, I turned to my friend who was watching the news with me and said, "How much you want to bet they start talking about him as a 'hero' in about two hours?" Of course, my friend did not want to make that bet. He'd lose. In this self-critical incapable nation, nothing but a knee-jerk "He's a hero" response is to be expected. I've been mystified at the absolute nonsense of being in "awe" of Tillman's "sacrifice" that has been the American response. Mystified, but not surprised. True, it's not everyday that you forgo...

Overnight tracking poll numbers from pollster Verne Kennedy shows Gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal with a four point lead moving into the last day of campaigning according to the Jindal campaign. Kennedy polled 400 voters last night, giving Jindal a 47 to 43 advantage. The Jindal campaign said is claiming that “the Kennedy’s numbers confirm an 1,100 sample Anderson Group poll completed last night showing Jindal with a 45 to 39 lead over his opponent“. The newest Kennedy numbers come as the Wall Street Journal today published an editorial by Jindal on attracting business to Louisiana. It also comes as Jindal...

I couldn't find a link to the poll, but the 3 day tracking poll done by Verne Kennedy shows the Race at Jindal 46 Blanco 42 Undecided 12

BATON ROUGE - A political flier mailed by the state Democratic Party says Republican contender for governor Bobby Jindal "is willing to let Louisiana women die" because of his anti-abortion stance. Jindal said Monday he is offended by the flier and called it "scare tactics." Democrat Kathleen Blanco, who faces Jindal in the runoff for governor Saturday, said she had no involvement in the mailing. "The point is simply to let Louisiana voters know Mr. Jindal's stand on the issues, and that is it in a nutshell. Nothing more and nothing less," said Democratic Party Chairman Mike Skinner. Jindal and...

Two new polls tracking the governor's race are out today and each one shows a different front-runner. A survey from Southeastern Louisiana University shows Kathleen Blanco leading Jindal 41 - 40. This newly available poll is old information by some polling standards, however, it was taken by SLU students October 28th through November 5th. However, the daily Verne Kennedy Poll places Jindal out in front by six points - 46 to 40. But that's less of a lead than Jindal had last week. Meanwhile, the man who's witty television ads have launched many political careers is speaking out about what's...

<p>BATON ROUGE -- Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal used their second-to-last statewide television debate Monday to tone down their rhetoric about who is responsible for negative campaign attacks, but still managed to zing each other on the use of information in campaign literature and ads.</p>

<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Republican Bobby Jindal and Democrat Kathleen Blanco are only a few points apart in the latest poll, but Jindal is likely to win if few people vote, the pollster says.</p> <p>Secretary of State Fox McKeithen has predicted that Saturday's turnout will be even lower than the Oct. 4 primary when about half the state's registered voters went to the polls. That would favor Jindal and be dangerous for Blanco, said pollster Susan E. Howell, director of the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center.</p>

Just announced. Details to come.

<p>Bucking conventional wisdom and political tradition, Republican Bobby Jindal is mounting an aggressive effort to win support among African-Americans, a traditionally Democratic constituency that Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco sorely needs on her side in the Nov. 15 gubernatorial runoff.</p> <p>Using targeted ads on urban radio stations and appeals to black business and legislative leaders, Jindal is making inroads among voters who typically support Democrats over Republicans by a margin of 9-to-1 or greater.</p>

<p>California isn't the only state with an interesting governor's race this year. Republican Bobby Jindal, the son of immigrants from India who placed first in Louisiana's all-party primary for governor Saturday, was so unknown in the state that he wasn't even included in the first statewide poll on the race last January. But the former Rhodes Scholar will now face a runoff on Nov. 15 against Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat. If he wins, Republicans will have not only a bright new star on the national stage but a powerful symbol of their efforts at ethnic outreach.</p>

An independent poll by Verne Kennedy suggests Republican Bobby Jindal is opening up a lead in the governor's race with 22 percent of those surveyed. "He is moving; there's no doubt about it," Kennedy said Wednesday. At this point, Kennedy said his poll shows the race for second place in the Oct. 4 primary -- and the right to face Jindal in the Nov. 15 runoff -- is apparently between Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Attorney General Richard Ieyoub. Blanco and Ieyoub, both Democrats, received 19 percent and 14 percent respectively in the telephone survey of 800 frequent voters on...

<p>Democrat Kathleen Blanco and Republican Bobby Jindal were the top two choices for governor among 600 Louisiana voters surveyed late last week. Blanco, the lieutenant governor, was chosen by 20 percent of those surveyed; Jindal, a former state health official, got 19 percent. Still, 21 percent of those polled stated no preference. Attorney General Richard Ieyoub, former congressman Claude "Buddy" Leach and former state Senate President Randy Ewing had 12 percent, 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively. All are Democrats. Next were two Republicans, one-time House Speaker Hunt Downer with 6 percent and Public Service Commission Chairman Jay Blossman with 3 percent. The poll was taken before several high-profile endorsements in the so-far low-key campaign, including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for Ewing, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers for Ieyoub and several New Orleans political groups for Leach. The poll by Marketing Research Insight of Pensacola, Fla., was conducted over four nights and ended Saturday. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Gannett newspapers published the poll Thursday, saying it was taken for a group of businessmen who were not identified.</p>

<p>Her children have voted with their feet. They didn't want her to run for governor of California. She ran anyway. On the day she announced her candidacy at "A Place Called Home," in South Central Los Angeles, her children moved out of hers in Brentwood and into their father's. "Our oldest daughter has been devastated by it," her dad said.</p>

<p>A story of fecklessness in the face of terror.</p> <p>As the elections of 1996 loomed, a sense of crisis pervaded America. We seemed under attack from all directions by terrorists, foreign and domestic. A bomb exploded amid the Summer Olympic Games. TWA flight 800 vaporized over the Atlantic and many suspected terror. Nineteen American soldiers died and hundreds were wounded as a bomb ripped through their barracks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A year before, the federal office building in Oklahoma City was destroyed, killing hundreds more. In 1993, a bomb ripped through the World Trade Center hospitalizing a thousand people and killing six.</p>

<p>It is called horse trading. Politicians making secret deals and hoping Americans never find out about them. It has been done since George Washington was president, and America is the less for it.</p> <p>Right now in D.C., President Bush needs the cooperation of the Democratic leadership to pass important legislation. The education bill is already done, the prescription drug bill is being formulated, and the economic stimulus package, well, that is never going to fly the way Mr. Bush wants it, no matter what he brings to trade.</p>

WASHINGTON -- After months of quietly moving around in the shadows of politics, former Vice President Al Gore will surface in Nashville on Feb. 2 for a big fund-raising rally in a downtown hotel for the Tennessee Democratic Party. Many of his supporters will say it's about time. In a sense, Mr. Gore will be doing no more than what he said he would be doing when he made his graceful exit from the political stage via television on Dec. 13, 2000: "spend time in Tennessee and mend some fences, literally and figuratively." After his appearance about five weeks later ...

BATON ROUGE: wide open. The Associated Press 1/3/02 2:58 PM For months, Breaux, a moderate Democrat had held open the possibility that he would run to succeed Foster, a popular Republican incumbent barred from seeking a third consecutive term. Politial analysts had said Breaux would be difficult to beat and that he would instantly be able to raise money and dry up campaign funds available to lesser knwon candidates. Breaux is serving his third term in the Senate, where he has built a reputation during the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as a builder of compromises. MORE ...

Exactly one year ago, in the corridors of a county office building in downtown Miami, a gang of imported Republican operatives tried to shove history toward George W. Bush. On the day before Thanksgiving 2000, the event described approvingly by the gentleman who now oversees the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal as a “bourgeois riot” stopped the recount of disputed ballots in Florida’s biggest county. Organized at the behest of former Secretary of State James Baker by a consultant whose reputation for dirty tricks dates back to the Nixon era, the “Brooks Brothers mob” embodied the iron will ...