According to Politico's Mike Allen, Time's Richard Stengel playfully asked Madeline Albright if we'd ever see another male Secretary of State, in an interview last night. The other question is, will we ever see another white president?
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is the great non-white hope of the Republican Party, who hope that this 37-year-old is their very own Obama. Steve Schmidt, the chief strategist of McCain's presidential campaign, says of Jindal, "The question is not whether he'll be president, but when he'll be president, because he will be elected someday." This is not a wildly unreasonably assertion by any means: Jindal is smart and talented and a good communicator, and he already has a record of accomplishment in Louisiana. He shares with Obama a focus on evidence-based, practical solutions when it comes to governing, though he also has a religious nutter side - he opposes all abortion rights and stem cell research and he supported a bill permitting Louisiana school teachers to teach so-called 'intelligent design'.
If he does run, it will likely be in 2016, unless Obama messes up badly in his first term. If he gains the nomination he will probably be favourite to win, given the tendency of the electorate to switch parties after two-termers. Which raises the distinct possibility that America won't have a white president for sixteen years.
It's getting to look like Chris Rock was more right than he knew.
Interesting how journalists love comparing Jindal to Obama. Wonder if they actually see anything beyond their skin color. One is a moderate (to the point where progressives have started criticizing Obama before he is even sworn in) and other has gained prominence primarily because of his extreme right views on religion, immigration, etc.
Ofcourse the thing I love about Jindal is that if Steve Schmidt is right (and he does have a great record, see Palin), is that he will be our first Exorcist President. http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/06/11/jindals_exorcism/
Posted by: Abhinav | December 02, 2008 at 06:20 PM