a star is born (redux)

One of the very first posts here on andúnië.net was about Bobby Jindal, then running for governor of Louisiana. He lost that election, but this week won a seat in the US House of Representatives, with an astonishing 78% of the vote in his district.

Here's a snippet from last fall's Opinion Journal profile:

The 32-year-old Mr. Jindal he had already impressed many in the state's elites with his intelligence and administrative ability. He became the head of the state's health-care system at age 24, director of the Breaux-Thomas national commission on Medicare at 26, president of the University of Louisiana system at 27, and a top adviser on health policy to President Bush at 29. […]

He treats his Indian background as an overall plus but won't trade on it. He left the space for “race” on his qualifying papers blank and attacks the division of people along racial lines. “I'm against all quotas, all set-asides,” he says. “America is the greatest. We got ahead by hard work. We shouldn't respond to every problem with a government program. Here, anyone can succeed.”

Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of press reactions from India. Also see this Powerline post from yesterday, which excerpts a more recent profile from The Weekly Standard.

On a somewhat related front: I'll put up my post-election thoughts this weekend, but for the moment can't help but gloat a bit over my predictions. I called the popular vote correctly: 52-48% (CNN is claiming only 51% for the President, but if you check their math, the total does round to 52%). I did put up two EV maps, and considered the optimistic one more likely; but now that Iowa has officially gone red, my “conservative” map was all good, with the sole exception of Wisconsin (which Kerry won by a single point). Tom Daschle did go down, and my prediction of one net gain in the Senate for each point in the popular vote spread also was exactly right.

And Dick Morris still has a job why, exactly?

UPDATE. Just realized that CNN's rounding error was likely mine: the President did win approximately 51.5% of the popular vote, but only if minor parties are excluded. Which, of course, they ought not be.

And Louisiana native Josh Britton left a comment linking to his post on Jindal's election. Although there is a seamy side to that state's politics, things appear to be looking up.

I've posted a little background on Bobby Jindal's Congressional District at:

http://thedailyanvil.blogspot.com/2004/11/another-louisiana-anecdote-but-this.html