Word: louisiana
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...talking tough is not an option in Louisiana, where there's a close battle going on, a runoff (required when no one tops 50%) on Dec. 7 between the top two finishers: incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu and state election commissioner Suzanne Terrell. The Republicans' strategy: show how close Terrell is to Bush. The Democrats' approach: pretty much the same. That's right, despite the new tough talk from the party's presidential wannabes, the Democrats' best strategy right now is to narrow the gap with Bush, maybe pretend there's no daylight...
Terrell, a longtime friend of Dubya's who co-ran his presidential campaign in Louisiana, is for shrinking government (she voted to eliminate her own job) and favors making Bush's tax cut permanent and then some: she would roll back the tax on wealthy Social Security recipients. She admires neither Washington values nor Washingtonspeak. When Terrell didn't know the answer to one of Tim Russert's questions during a head-to-head debate on Meet the Press, she admitted she didn't know, explaining afterward that she didn't want to be "overprepared and seem robotic...
...does the best job of caulking the cracks in her base. Before the election, Republican Governor Mike Foster (who was supporting Cooksey) railed at Terrell for engaging in "class warfare" because of a negative ad she ran around the clock for weeks that claimed Landrieu had lost touch with Louisiana values because she lives in a million-dollar mansion in Washington. Landrieu's row house next to a dry cleaner on a major thoroughfare might be worth a million--Washington real estate is absurd--but it's surely not worth more than Terrell's residence in a gated community...
...African-American leaders who are threatening to stay home to teach a lesson to Democrats, who spend more time courting Bush than courting blacks. Governor Foster came around last week, joining Terrell onstage with Dick Cheney. And there's another politician ready to help. President Bush will swing through Louisiana on his way back to Washington after Thanksgiving to give a boost to the candidate he can count on 100% of the time...
...help, as they did during the Gulf War, by releasing part of their industry and government petroleum stockpiles. Even the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is doing its part: heavyweights such as Saudi Arabia have opened the taps, helping America fill the reserve's salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana with crude. U.S. oil prices, meanwhile, have fallen 15% since late September, to around $26.50 per bbl. --By Adam Zagorin/Washington