Bobby Jindal lost yesterday's gubernatorial race in Louisiana to Kathleen Blanco, and in the identity politics story of the day, the Washington Post reports:
Blanco, 60, has held public office here for 20 years -- but her victory in the governor's race broke from the path of tradition. She is the first woman to be elected governor of a Deep South state, and only the third female governor elected in the old Confederacy (Texas has had two).Apparently the Washington Post has forgotten about Lurleen Wallace, who was elected governor of Alabama in 1966.
Now, as soon as I read the quoted sentence from the Washington Post, I remembered George Wallace's wife. If I -- who wasn't even born at the time -- can come up with another example from memory, shouldn't reporters -- who are actually paid to do research for their stories -- not make mistakes like this?
Comments (1)
Of course if Bobby Jindal had won then the story would have been that this was the first time since Reconstruction that a "non white" had been elected Governor in the Deep South.
I find the use of that term somewhat ironic (it was in the news stories before the election) since it was being used to indicate the “bigotry” of the Whites southerners. However, the reason Bobby Jindal lost was because of the fact that Blacks voted overwhelming against him. I guess only Jesse Jackson believes that “people of color” should stick together.
Posted by Richard | November 16, 2003 10:27 PM
Posted on November 16, 2003 22:27