jindal breaks from the pack

Bobby Jindal (AP).

So anyway, with 2012 out of the way we can start obsessing over the 2016 primaries, which promise to be absolutely fascinating, particularly on the Republican side. More on this in weeks to come but right now let's just note the first potential GOP contender to begin staking out a position: Louisiana's governor, Bobby Jindal.

Jindal has long been talked of as a future nominee. He's bright (a degree in political science from Oxford) and accomplished, being midway through a second term as governor at the age of 41. He's been an effective and popular governor of Louisiana, overseeing a radical post-Katrina education programme (much of the New Orleans school system literally got swept away in the floods) which has won admiration around the world, raising standards for poor, African-American kids. He's got conservative cred because of his refusal to take (at least some of) the Obama stimulus, and his hardline beliefs on abortion (he's a Catholic). And of course he has the unusual distinction of being a Republican politician who isn't white.

His national prospects received a setback in 2009 when he was chosen to give the party's response to Obama's first State of the Union and did a dreadful job, communicating with all the vibrancy of a cardboard box and employing an anecdote of rather dubious truth value.

Jindal's SOTU response was bad partly because he seemed to be parroting party talking points, and poorly. But he's now talking with the urgency of a man who has discovered his political mission. In an interview on Monday he said:

“We’ve got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything...We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys...It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal said. “It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated...We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.”

No senior Republican politician - not even Chris Christie - has dared be as blunt about the party's malaise. But that wasn't the end of it. Yesterday, Jindal commented on Mitt Romney's unseemly explanation of his defeat. Romney, talking to his donors on a conference call, said Obama won because he handed out "gifts" to minorities and young voters. Other senior Republicans, like Marco Rubio, cautiously distanced themselves from Romney's remarks. But Jindal really hammered him:

“I think that’s absolutely wrong,” Jindal said later Wednesday at a news conference in Las Vegas at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association. “We have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent..."

Then, in a CNN interview he reiterated his point:

"This is completely unhelpful," Jindal told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room." "This is not where the Republican Party needs to go. If you want voters to like you, the first thing you've got to do is like them first."

That last sentence - if you want voters to like you, the first thing you've got to do is like them first - is, I think, simple but brilliant. It nails the problem with Romney's remarks, which was one of tone and tenor as much as substance. It expresses, in a few words, a profound political truth - a lesson that the modern Tory Party had to learn the hard way after 13 years out of power, and one that successful politicians like Reagan, Blair and Clinton, understand instinctively. Jindal is doing his party a service by spelling it out, but it can't be faked - the last two Republican candidates tried and failed. For all the ardent talk about loving America, right now many Republicans seem to be baffled and repelled by many Americans. That's got to change if they want to win again.

Comments

[Anne]

Ian, I have so loved your blog. It's my very favorite thing to read every day ... you have the best insights on what's going on, and I look forward with great anticipation to what you'll have to say.

Jindal is, it appears to me, one of the best hopes of the Republican Party, and I speak as a liberal in a deeply conservative state. I hope we can get back to moderation and reason in the Republican Party. I do think a vigorous two-party system is really important to keep us all thinking, to keep powerful people from getting too arrogant.

But it's been many days since a new post from you, and I do miss it so -- please give us a new one!

[Guy]

bravo Anne - I just came in here to say the same thing. I have been reading Ian here for the last year or so and find his writings to express my own thoughts and feelings to a tee.
I'm only sorry we don't see enough people posting reply-comments to get some additional insights and wisdoms.

[Guy]

On the subject of Jindal, I'm amazed to hear such wisdom from a Republican - it was absolutely absent from the campaign. I had reluctantly come to the conclusion that long term, civilization in America was actually doomed , such was the dominance of fear-mongerers on the right.
Jindal is harnessing the power of love as opposed to the power of hate - with which we are all so wearisomely familiar.
I could vote for any man who does this.

[Ian Leslie]

Oh you guys.