Archive for July 10th, 2008
Bobby Piyush Jindal
Bobby Jindal took office as governor of Louisiana on January 14, 2008. As such, he’s got 178 days more executive experience in government than either Barack Obama or John McCain. More than both combined, actually, as they each have zero such days.
At 36, Gov. Jindal is a mere lad in electoral politics, and is dismissed by many as being unready for the big time of being John McCain’s veep. This is the card played by those who simply don’t like the idea of any upstart jumping ahead of those plodders in the GOP who are waiting their turn, like good soldiers.
There’s something to be said for seasoning. There’s much more to said for actually having ideas and having the guts to stand up to the entrenched and corrupt bureaucracy in Louisiana. His other positives? He’s a conservative in all spheres: social (devout Roman Catholic), fiscal, national security. He’s in favor of doing what is needed to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. His record in Louisiana is already paying dividends in perhaps the sorriest state in the Union.
He’s also brilliant (Rhodes scholar) and photogenic. Just the ticket for the GOP ticket: an actual conservative who won’t scare the children. Listening to him, for example this morning on Fox&Friends, I’m struck by the directness and honesty of his answers.
Bobby Jindal is not a man who needs to check his sources to make sure he isn’t flip-flopping; he doesn’t need to blame his staff for apparent contradictions. He won’t be caught saying one thing to one group and the exact opposite to another. Won’t be caught because he does not do that. That’s Obama’s claim to infamy.
Both Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich have spoken favorably of having Gov. Jindal on the ticket. Which might doom his chances with some, but here’s why this makes great good sense for John McCain: Jindal would add youth, energy, and intellectual heft to the ticket.
Not least, in this year of ObamaMessiah swooning, Bobby Jindal is, shudder, “a person of color.” He’s also the child of immigrants. He’s also a devout Christian. Finally, he’s got one of those funky, foreign names to more than equal Barack Hussein Obama’s: Bobby Jindal’s legal name remains “Piyush.”
Go Bobby, Go!
