How we benefit

The other day Clancy Dubos told me over the WWL radio airwaves that whether or not Governor Bobby Jindal actually runs for President in 2012, "the state of Louisiana benefits either way" from the constant speculation. Since then, I've been trying to figure out exactly what form these "benefits" might take. I was hoping to learn that Louisiana residents would receive compensatory checks from the federal government to make up for the mental anguish of living in the center of an uninterrupted 2008-2012 election cycle... but apparently FEMA is already stretched kind of thin in our region so... no such luck.

So far, the only evidence of Louisianians "benefiting" from the PBJ or POTUS hysteria comes in the form of candidate Jindal building his conservative cred by pulling federal Medicaid dollars out of the state's charity hospital system and handing it directly to private HMOs.

But don't get too excited. This is only the first "benefit" we can expect to see under the Clancy Dubos theory of trickle-down Presidential politics. Many more fascinating developments to come, I'm sure.

Update: Louisianians also "benefit" from the state's...um.... enhanced ethics standing.