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Jindal’s rising star
February 24th, 2009, 7:56 pm · 32 Comments · posted by Steven Greenhut
I was genuinely impressed with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s congressional address. Unlike many other Republicans, he was gracious and he took the time to explain why limited government is more sensible than big government. He was completely in command of the issues, unlike a certain GOP presidential candidate, and he used humor and stories effectively. He gave concrete examples — i.e., Hurricane Katrina, and the way bureaucrats tried to stop a boat rescue operation — about why individualism is better than bureaucracy.
Here is the entire speech text.
Here is my favorite excerpt, in which he carefully explains the Republican approach compared to the Democratic approach:
Today in Washington, some are promising that government will rescue us from the economic storms raging all around us. Those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina, we have our doubts. During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: ‘Well, I’m the Sheriff and if you don’t like it you can come and arrest me!’ I asked him: ‘Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?’ He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, ‘Sheriff, that’s ridiculous.’ And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: ‘Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!’ Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.
Let me tell you a story.
There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens. We are grateful for the support we have received from across the nation for the ongoing recovery efforts. This spirit got Louisiana through the hurricanes - and this spirit will get our nation through the storms we face today.
To solve our current problems, Washington must lead. But the way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians. The way to lead is by empowering you - the American people. Because we believe that Americans can do anything.
That is why Republicans put forward plans to create jobs by lowering income tax rates for working families … cutting taxes for small businesses … strengthening incentives for businesses to invest in new equipment and hire new workers … and stabilizing home values by creating a new tax credit for home-buyers. These plans would cost less and create more jobs.
Jindal is a true rising star — not because of his personal story as the son of Indian immigrants, but because of his ability to explain the Republican message in an understandable and intelligent manner.
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Steve, Steve! What don’t you repeat the story Jindel told of performing an exorcism!
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/06/11/jindals_exorcism/
“The students, led by Susan’s sister and Louise, a member of a charismatic church, engaged in loud and desperate prayers while holding Susan with one hand. Kneeling on the ground, my friends were chanting, “Satan, I command you to leave this woman.” Others exhorted all “demons to leave in the name of Christ.” It is no exaggeration to note the tears and sweat among those assembled. Susan lashed out at the assembled students with verbal assaults.”
-Bobby Jindal
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/bobby_jindals_dance_with_the_d.php
Does this mean Jindal is going to reject any funds from the Stimulus Bill?
You say you heard nothing but banalities from Obama. That’s exactly what I heard from Jindal. Especially given how laissez-faire capitalism and deregulation has caused the spending of almost $9T to keep this country from sliding into the abyss.
Only a fool would buy into that mindset given the outcome in the last year.
Jindal has to stop reading his speeches. Or at least learn to fake it while he’s reading. We live under one party government rule. Democrat-Republican is one big blur. I heard a quote from Arnold today: Regarding his promise not to raise taxes, to paraphrase he said….’That’s what I said before the election, not after the election’. That pretty much says it all. Self-admitted L-I-A-R-S. None of them can be trusted. Jindal is another chameleon. I don’t trust him any farther than I could throw him.
Steven, I think this may be the first time I do not agree with you.
Jindal was a guest on Meet The Press this past Sunday and in my opinion he oooozed “politician.” I would not trust him with a ten foot pole.
Wow, I soooo want the Republicans to run Jindal. Or maybe a Palin Jindal ticket. That would be fun.
He’s not a bad sort of person. He’s just willing to say the wacky things he’d have to say in order to get through the Republican primaries. Suck up to the SoCons. But I doubt he believes any of it. Hell, Ralph Reed didn’t believe any of it and he founded the Christian Coalition.
He is however a singularly laughable national figure. Not quite as bad as Palin but still embarrassingly bad. Why is it that the Republicans want to run another candidate who’s natural caricature is Alfred E Neuman?
I agree Steve…. “Limited government is better than big government”, but when Jindal went on to say “That is why Republicans put forward plans to create jobs by lowering income tax rates for working families … cutting taxes for small businesses … strengthening incentives for businesses to invest in new equipment and hire new workers … and stabilizing home values by creating a new tax credit for home-buyers. These plans would cost less and create more jobs…” I’m sure he’s reading some crap that some political hack consultant put in front of him to read because the Republicans of lately (GB & Ass) are just as bad as the Dem’s of lately. The only difference is the Reps love the smell of blood and that’s real bad.
Jindal seems very good. Let’s hope he doesn’t turn into a nutjob like Palin. I found his speech quite well balanced, and it acknowledged the errors of the GOP in recent years.
Well done, over all. He is certainly one to watch.
He is certainly one to watch.
Truer words were never spoken.
I just don’t believe in the way you meant it.
Based on what I saw last night, I’m not at all impressed with Jindal.
One has to love the irony of a GOP (especially one from Louisiana) citing Katrina as an example of govt. ineptitude.
That is a priceless moment.
To All,
I now realize why many of you make such stupid posts. I was reading an editorial in the NYT and came across this:
Democracy, at its best, rests on a foundation of mutual respect among co-equal citizens willing to take the time for serious debate. After all, even on the momentous issues that divide us, there is usually the possibility that the other side has a good argument. Yet if we paint our opponents as monsters, we owe them no obligation to pay attention to what they have to say.
Please keep this thought in mind as you start your next stupid post.
You mean like saying Barack Obama is “arrogant,” “dishonest,” and “radical,” Fox News’ Sean Hannity announced during a single 10-second chunk of prime-time TV last week?
Or how since Inauguration Day we’ve learned Obama has “Marxist tendencies” and is “addicting this country to heroin — the heroin that is government slavery” (Glenn Beck). That, “there are eerie, eerie similarities” between Obama and Nazis” (Michael Savage’s guest host, Chris Stigall).
Meanwhile, last week widely read right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin was seen smiling while getting her picture taken with an Obama hater who proudly brandished a swastika placard at an anti-Obama rally in Denver.
Obama has been President for almost a month. Watching the right wing come unhinged has been one of the best sideshows of this administration.
I’m not even going to discuss the unpatriotic and Unamerican remarks of Rush Limbaugh hoping that Obama “fails.” How someone who claims to be a patriot can say something like that while there are troops in harm’s way showing our enemies we are divided is a mystery to me. I bet our enemies are emboldened knowing we are divided.
That last part was a stab at humor. My ironometer is pegged at how fashionable dissent has become amongst conservatives. And how all of a sudden they are concerned about spending. It’s no mystery to me why Jindal gave the response. A GOP congressional member would have been laughed at by the left and embarrassed the right.
OC,
the few conservatives in the media (you probably mentioned them all) will beat BO as well. How does any of this advance the issues facing Americans? All these stupid posts do is make the poster feel as if he’s one up in the current debate. Most are too ideologically driven to advance thoughtful debate and offer solutions. You offer many examples of disrespectful comments by conservatives toward Mr. Obama. Do you feel the with regard to the disrespectful commets and toward Mr. Bush or do you feel that these were deserved? I believe I know the answer to my own question.
For eight years liberals and the liberal media beat W. like a rented mule. I imagine for the next 4 (maybe
ralph reed was not the founder of the christian coalition.That was pat robertson .have you ever read a newspaper at all?
thats not the only time malkin found herself around nazi’s and klan types.she seems to forget to reaserch the people that invite her to appear at their functions. Apperantly as the leader of the christian identity movement did ,these groups are no smarter than she is .They invited her a few years ago to speak because they liked what she wrote but when she showed up they were a little put off by the fact she is not white…….Like minds..etc.
He’s the perfect foil against the rabid and leftist media. He is the only Conservative who can make the media and the Washington Liberal elites look like the fools that they really are.
The Dems are going to try “beat” him down as well.
Ralph Reed was the first executive director of the Christian Coalition and ran it from 1989 to 1997. The Christian Coalition was in fact founded by Pat Robertson based on the shreds of his divinely inspired 1988 presidential campaign.
“For eight years liberals and the liberal media beat W. like a rented mule”
SJ — absolutely not true; these guys played the NY Times with leaked stories to support the run up to war. Most corporate media is owned by conservatiev corporations. The ratio of conservatives to liberals on the Sunday talk shows was 2-to-1 in favor of conservatives. Right wingers dominate talk radio. Conservative blogs outnumber liberal ones. I’d advise you to check out Eric Alterman’s “What Liberal Media?” which documents and debunks the myth of liberal media bias.
Or this recent study by two IU professors that debunks the “liberal media” myth.
I imagine for the next 4 (maybe the few conservatives in the media (you probably mentioned them all) will beat BO as well. How does any of this advance the issues facing Americans?
SJ,
You’ll have to ask those critics that question. I don’t know.
Ok, I’ll bite. First, I admit I read Jindal’s remarks rather than watch him because, well, I found his bearing and delivery just plain unwatchable. His cadences reminded me (it took a while for me to place it) of Macauley Culkin’s in the Home Alone movies - not a good image. His walk out to the camera was so painfully contrived and self conscious, I can’t blame Chris Matthews or whoever from muttering, “Oh God,” as he did it. Whatever the merits of his policy positions, he really needs some work on preserntation.
Now as for his positions - the Katrina story was nice, but I think Jindal, and the Republicans, draw precisely the wrong lesson from it. They use it to show the inevitable and universal failure of government - a nihilistic view that deems any government attempt to do something, anything, as foredoomed to failure. I would suggest that Katrina rather shows us how government can fail when it’s not competently led. We all know by now, too well, how FEMA - an agency that had historically high marks for its crisis respomnses over the previous generation, under presidents of both parties - was turned into a dumping ground for political hacks under Bush II. Katrina doesn;t show that government will inevitably fail, only that government in the hands of the unqualified will. The answer isn’t to (for example) disband FEMA, but to make it work better - the way it used to, under reagan, Bush I and Clinton. Anyone who interfaced with FEMA (as I did) after Northridge knows how well and efficiently that operation went.
For the Republican Party, having gutted FEMA, having staffed our food safety inspection agencies, our financial regulatory bodies, our civil rights enforcement groups, our environnmental protection programs, and most other government agencies with hacks who either were manifestly unqualified (at best) or actively disapproving of the very regulatory structure they were charged with enforcing (at the more usual). to then complain when (surprise!) those agencies failed to do their jobs, to the public’s detriment, is the height of hypocrisy. For it to claim that this demonstrates that government is intrinsically incapable of doing anything right is the merest self-fulfilling prophecy. There was a clever line last year about how the Republicans always run claiming government doesn’t work, and when they get elected they set about to prove it. That’s literally true in this case, and Katrina is a good example.
Meanwhile, Jindal, happy in his ideological box, is refusing stimulus money directed at extending unemployment benefits for workers in Louisiana. That may win him points among the Republican cognoscenti and chattering classes, but i have a sneaky feeling working folks down on the bayou are going to be less impressed. Governmental incompetence has real consequences. So does ideology driven politics.
IU Professors? I’m impressed with a liberal’s opinion of liberal media.
All these so-called intellectual giants who stump for Obama are nothing but frauds. I would sooner go to my barber for his opinion on the economy than these ivory tower idiots. They know nothing. All of them are bought and paid for. Same for the morons who stumped for Bush. They are all cut from the same cloth. All frauds. There is massive trickery, deceit and fraud in this society. And the ones who claim to be our intelligensia and foremost experts are the worst of all. Just follow the money trail. You’ll find them with their faces in the trough.
” Most are too ideologically driven to advance thoughtful debate and offer solutions.”
SJ - careful how you use the word “ideologically.”
http://www.freedompolitics.com/articles/ideology_412___column.html/principles_term.html
Or maybe this supports your point.
Eric Alterman….Seriously just another liberal defending liberals. Back to my original point. ” Democracy, at its best, rests on a foundation of mutual respect among co-equal citizens willing to take the time for serious debate. After all, even on the momentous issues that divide us, there is usually the possibility that the other side has a good argument. Yet if we paint our opponents as monsters, we owe them no obligation to pay attention to what they have to say.” There’s no mutual respect on this forum or in the various blogs — liberal or conservative. We all play the ideology trump card (myself included).
rlh,
You write in your comment:
“His walk out to the camera was so painfully contrived and self conscious, I can’t blame Chris Matthews or whoever from muttering, “Oh God,” as he did it. Whatever the merits of his policy positions, he really needs some work on presentation”
Come on. I thought he did a fine job and represented the Conservative wing of the Republican party very well. He had a lot substance and he told the truth about the issues we face as Americans, while President Obama came out as the slick salesman pitching his nonsense to the gullible folks who hang on his every word. Remember that Jindal is only 37 year old and going out against the adoration and approval of most of the media and the majority of Americans who now currently support Obama. It was really like a David and Goliath spectacle.
Good point Catfish. The question is why didn’t the GOP send out an experienced Congressional representative.
Might be because that group has no credibility on lecturing about spending and government expansion.
IU Professors? I’m impressed with a liberal’s opinion of liberal media.
As oppposed to the objective conservative groups who whine about the “liberal” media?
Ya gotta luv SJ and ocobserver, their breezy dismissal of facts, research and “ivory tower” smarty pants (i.e., the educated), it must be nice to live in a world where the only truth you need is your own uninformed opinion.
Catfish, the conservative consensus backs rlh’s view. From LittleGreenFootballs, Byron York said “Bobby Jindal’s ineffective response was not part of that new approach — everyone seems a little embarrassed about that.” Brit Hume: ”This was not Bobby Jindal’s greatest oratorical moment.” Charles himself said, “Bobby Jindal, however, seemed to be trying for the same “inspirey hopey changey” theme as the Big O, but came up with almost no specifics about anything at all.”
The Right’s bench is really weak right now. Eric Cantor? Michael Steele? Jeb?
“conservative consensus” I have not seen a lot of that recently. Many so called Conservative have given up on their principles and left real conservativism for the so called moderate view to better their own careers. Really, I am a Conservative in name only, and believe strongly in economic liberalism. I believe in a market approach to solve our current crisis and so does Jindal, so I don’t care about all the floppy eared Conservatives that are moving to the left.
I LOVE Bobby Jindal! As a disaffected republican, I have finally learned to do my homework on politicians before I support them. Jindal has a fantastic record to back up his rhetoric. He has been hugely successful as Gov of Louisiana and has governed like he preaches… a true fiscal conservative. I look forward to his rise in National politics.
Seems Jindal made up the story of standing shoulder to shoulder with Sheriff Lee.
But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone “days later.” The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.
This is no minor difference. Jindal’s presence in Lee’s office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story’s intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn’t there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.
I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before conservatives express their faux outrage over this exaggeration like they did when Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet or when Hillary claimed to have exited an airplane under sniper fire.