HOW POPULAR IS JINDAL?
by Jeremy Alford - Gambit Weekly (excerpt)

To answer the question directly, GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal might as well be Louisiana's official high school quarterback. But when you're at the top, as they say, there's nowhere to go but down.

Just ask Jindal, whose superstar poll numbers are finally beginning to reveal that he's human after all and not some unstoppable political robot. In a poll released late last month by WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, 66 percent of voters surveyed had a favorable opinion of the governor. That's down from an August poll conducted by OnMessage and commissioned by the Louisiana Republican Party that showed Jindal's favorable rating at 76 percent.

Ed Renwick of Loyola University, a New Orleans pollster who conducted the WAFB survey, says Jindal's on-again/off-again support for a legislative pay raise earlier this year is one of the likely culprits for the slight drop in his numbers.

Renwick adds that Jindal is still enjoying a "strangely unusual" popularity for a sitting governor, despite the recent dip. For now, Jindal is safe and likely to remain the state's top Republican. "Nobody ever lost an election with 66 percent," Renwick says.

COMMENTARY: Governor Palin was at 80% favorable in Alaska (the "Most Popular Governor in America") prior to her run for VP. A poll released this week showed her down to 64%.