i go to abortion rallies with pictures of sliced up fetuses. i am not trying to stir up the issue, i just think the photos are interesting.
The fact is, the south has always been conservative.. the South did not leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left the south. People in the south are more religious, more working class, more politically involved. Whats the saying about Louisiana, The two biggest sporst are Football and Politics, or some such thing. But back to the Dems. Even the Dems in Louisiana are conservatives, though usually only on the social agenda. Fiscally, Dems are still pretty much liberal. I consider myself a Giuliani Republican.. Social Moderate, Fiscal COnservative...
If Mary L. had been up for reelection last time she would be gone. Look at the trend we are seeing in all of the southern states. It's because of what loco said in a previous post, the dems have lost their conservative voters. Alot of people are confused about which direction to go, they hate W, but they don't want to support a bunch of baby killers and peacniks. I said a few nights ago that I believed the democratic party is in it's twilight years. They're rotting from the inside out. I really liked Bobby J. and wish that he would have won, I liked his ideas and demeanor. I believe most people did. If he had been white, instead of Indian, blanco would have lost. I guess racism isn't dead. Look at the amazing victory by Vitter. We didn't even have to go to a runoff. Even with the shady way that Breaux tried to get his replacement elected. On every one of the issues that you listed, you feel one way and I feel another. I can find polls that show support just like you can find polls that show nonsupport. Everyone on the left assumed that Bush would not stand a chance due to the war. I guess they were wrong. He just happened to be elected by the largest majority of votes across the country than any president ever. What does that tell you? Republicans came close to winning states that have never been anywhere near close. Hell, we won Florida, even after all the controversy from last time. Blanco is done after this term. Mary is in her last term. The democratic party is finished in this state.
I don't know about that. We're talking about the same voters who approved the Stelly Plan. Registered Democrats still outnumber registered Republicans in Louisiana 3-to-1. Those "blue-dog Dems" support President Bush on national security and most social issues, but their still Populists, and still all about the govt. giving away money like it's candy to the "Little Man." As things stand right now, Blanco is definitely in trouble. Not too much trouble, but, for her to be safe for re-election, the following things must happen: -she has to keep the Saints in New Orleans while also keeping most of the state's money. -she absolutely must bring some sort of blockbuster economic development to the state. Something involving 25,000+ new jobs. -K-12 education must continue across-the-board improvement. She got away with cutting higher education budgets. But she had better hold the line on K-12 spending without increasing taxes. -absolutely nothing else must go wrong. No scandals, no stealing from anyone in her administration, and no "Oh my gosh, the state's facing a $1 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year! Oooops!" I'm afraid that might happen. I don't know what's goin' on, but I'm seeing and hearing and reading a lot of stories about how the state's tightening up on this and shortchanging that and cutting this and trimming that, the deal with renegotiating with the Saints being only the most prominent of those stories. If the media is to be believed, it sounds like the state is as broke as it was back in the worst days of the Oil Bust. I want to know how that happened, considering the old comparison I made on this board about Louisiana and Colorado (roughly the same geographic size, roughly the same population, but Colorado is much better off in standard of living with a state budget 1/3 that of Louisiana's) Our corporate tax structure has improved little since Blanco took office (she got a law passed that delays the cut in business taxes until after she's out of office, leaving it to her successor to deal with the brief but very painful adjustment period that will follow) so you can forget about some car plant or computer software company re-locating to Louisiana and becoming our economic salvation. And the Saints, well, who knows what could happen. I'd tell Benson to screw himself, and give that money to teachers in the form of a pay raise, but it ain't me who's desperate for the bloc vote of New Orleans for re-election. K-12 education is on the way up, but she's just following through with Mike Foster's reforms. She didn't continue the funding increases for higher education though, and it will come back to bite her. My dream for 2007; Bobby Jindal runs again (which he very well may do) and crushes her in the re-match. I just hope our state doesn't have to totally crash and burn for that to happen.
Who assigned the colors for the states? I would prefer more creative colors than red and blue. Purple, maroon, black, orange...pretty much the terror alerts would be an upgrade!
The media of course. Blue is supposed to be regal and red is supposed to remind people of the the communist.
Red, you like to keep saying this like it means something, but what you very conveniently leave out is that in 1992, 57% of the country didn't vote Democrat, and in 1996, 51% didn't. And while 49% didn't vote GOP in 2004, it's still an increase over those who did in 2000. During all that time, people were keeping Republicans in control of Congress.
I had a buddy who was a cop during the Operation Rescue thing 10-12 years ago, and while working there, he faced the protesters on the other side of the chainlink fence and spit out a king cake baby. Those people went berserk.
