Political Horizons for Nov. 9, 2008

America witnessed a political sea change Tuesday with the Democratic Party assuming control of the White House and the U.S. Congress. Here in Louisiana, it was “Yes, we can” — stay the same. Louisiana voters gave Republican contender John McCain some of his largest margins, the same way much of the rest of the country gave Barack Obama the first majority win for a presidential candidate since 1984. The state returned for a third term Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, who the national GOP had targeted for extinction. The state’s congressional delegation remained overwhelmingly Republican. Locally, voters replaced a gun-toting, anti-abortion conservative Democrat with a gun-supporting, anti-abortion conservative Republican. The key difference between incumbent Don Cazayoux and insurgent Bill Cassidy was the “D” and “R” behind... [read full story]