Bobby Jindal Takes A Beating

(CBS)

The big story Tuesday night, of course, was Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress. But almost as interesting to political junkies was what came immediately afterward: The response from Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana Governor being pushed as the new face of the Republican Party and a leading contender for the party's presidential nomination in 2012.

What was meant to be a coming out celebration on the national stage, however, turned to something far different for Jindal: The governor, who has been well received in other public forums, was almost universally panned. And an address that was expected to generate momentum for a possible 2012 run instead resulted in questions about whether the 37-year-old governor is really ready for prime time. (You can watch and read Jindal's speech in full here.)

Many of the most stinging barbs came from Jindal's ideological brethren. Consider these comments from a Fox News panel right after the speech:

"This was not Bobby Jindal's greatest oratorical moment."

"The delivery was not exactly terrific."

"I think he had a really poor performance tonight…it just came off as amateurish."

"Even the tempo in which he spoke seemed like sing-song, and he was telling stories that seemed very simplistic, and almost childish."

"He tried the best he could."

Then there was the response from center-right New York Times columnist David Brooks, who said this:

To come up at this moment in history with a stale, government-is-the-problem, we can't trust the federal government – it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but the idea that government is going to have no role, that the federal government has no role in this, in a moment when only the federal government is big enough to actually do stuff – to just ignore all that, and just say government is a problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending, it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is. It's not where the future of the country is.

…I think it's insane. I just think it's a disaster for the party.

And while one might not expect much support for a Republican response from liberals like MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, the unvarnished disdain from the left that greeted Jindal's effort went far beyond the usual criticism.

(AP Photo/MSNBC, Ali Goldstein)

Here's Maddow: "Honestly, the Republican response to Barack Obama's first State Of The Union was to invoke government failure during Katrina as a model for how to move forward as a country. I know that I am paid to talk for a living, I am incapable of doing what I am paid to do right now. I am absolutely stunned."

Her MSNBC colleague Chris Matthews was more direct in his assessment of Jindal as he emerged to give the speech: "Oh, God."

State Of The Union responses often fall flat – the speaker is following the grand spectacle of a dramatic speech to Congress, punctuated by applause and standing ovations, with an awkward, audience-free address directly to a camera – but the strength of the negative response to Jindal's effort is almost unprecedented.

(More often then not, these responses are endured and quickly forgotten. Remember commerce secretary nominee Gary Locke's 2003 effort? Didn't think so.)

As Republican political strategist David Johnson pointed out in the New York Times today, Jindal was to some extent the victim of high expectations, since Republicans are desperately "looking for a voice to lead them out of the wilderness."

Nonetheless, he admitted, "it was a flop."

(AP)

The Louisiana governor even managed to anger a seldom-heard lobby: The volcano-adjacent. Jindal identified a $140 million appropriation for volcano monitoring as an example of wasteful spending in the Obama-backed stimulus package, prompting Royce Pollard, the mayor of Vancouver, Washington, to point out that the people of his town take volcano monitoring quite seriously.

"Does the governor have a volcano in his backyard?" Pollard asked. "We have one that's very active, and it still rumbles and spits and coughs very frequently."

Jindal still has one prominent defender: Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who said, the day after the speech, "I love Bobby Jindal, and that did not change after last night." (He did acknowledge, however, that "I never heard the media, both sides, conservative and liberal, dump on a response like they did last night.")

Criticism of the governor has even seeped into pop culture: Following Jindal's speech, a number of people took to the internet to proclaim the similarity between Jindal and Kenneth The Page from the NBC sitcom "30 Rock." And now "Kenneth" has responded, saying Jindal "sounds like a real goober…natorial representative."



It remains to be seen to what degree the fallout from Jindal's response will impact his standing among Republicans. But as Sarah Palin can tell you, getting mocked by a "30 Rock" cast member probably isn't going to help.

[homespunlady]

They'd have been smarter to have put Ron Paul out there for the response BUT THE ONLY member of their Party that SAW THIS FINANCIAL MESS COMING seems to STILL be avoided by them - probably because of EMBARRASSMENT now that he was PROVEN RIGHT with his prediction of where the Bush Policies were leading.

And we ALL KNOW that like spoiled petulant brats - the GOP WILL NEVER OWN UP to their contribution to this financial crisis.
They will "blame the other guy", throw diversionary fits and try to weasel out of any solution that doesn't include rewarding themselves at the expense of the good of the nation.


Suggestion to the GOP - GET Jindal a GOOD Public Speaking course and make him go through it.

Whatever "message" he MAY have been trying to send was LOST the minute he started with the sing-song tone that should only be used to teach small children language skills and possibly when reading "My Pet Goat" to them.

[Professor2U]

Bobby sounded like a Road Apple Scholar. Of course his PAID Anti-American Republican hack Rush Limpballs was the only one to defend him. I do not understand this Sicko Republican mindset. I am not mentally ill either. Correct me if I am wrong, but if the economy goes to hell in a basket, don't they go down with it?

[michag2]

Jindal was talking to us like Mr Rogers. I had to leave the room...

[clcmm36]

Republican Party, keep doing exactly what you're doing now, it will insure a Dem landslide in 2012 and the re-election of President Obama.

[katg21]

What I have read here justifies my observation that you people are self indulgent, arrogant, selfish bastards who will consistently blamed anyone and anything except you!
Posted by geoseeker

Problem is that these type of people you speak of are the only ones heard. There is a silent (almost majority) who believe the same as you, however, it is not popular right now. The people with differing points of view, i.e. Jindal, Palin, Joe the plummer, will continue to be demonized/belittled by the media and Obamamaniacs. At the moment, congress and the white house would prefer to keep the people dumbed down so they can get their agenda passed. Everyone is still on an Obama high, too far gone to realize that they are losing their rights and money at the speed of light. Why else do you thing Obama is rushing all of this through so quickly? By the time the american people realize what happened it will be to late to do anything about it.

[geoseeker]

I am not a Republican nor a Democrat and lived here in your country for over 10 years now, working legally, following your rules (which by the way most of you Americans don't even follow), paying my taxes promptly (again unlike 40% of your population who subsist on a welfare mentality). My American friends constantly ask me why I never opted to take American citizenship - this is why! I taught my children to be God-fearing, to reject populist selfish theology, to live within their means and be productive in their endeavours. What I have read here justifies my observation that you people are self indulgent, arrogant, selfish bastards who will consistently blamed anyone and anything except you!

[abbe91]

Sorry, I meant ...

"First he is Republican and second he isn't black or white,
Posted by clancy49 at 3:01 AM : Feb 27, 2009"
Same for Obama, as far as I know ...

[abbe91]

"First he is Republican and second he isn't black or white,
Posted by skyk-2009 at 3:40 AM : Feb 27, 2009 "

Same for Obama, as far as I know ...

[abbe91]

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/11/lkl.01.html

"LEE: I fully believe that when then matter is looked into, we tried to get some boats in the water early on. When I realized that we had a problem, I was the one that made the call in WWO (UNINTELLIGIBLE) radio if there was anybody with a boat to come to a place so that we can get the boats in the water because I was around when -- the other big hurricanes, and most of the rescue done early on were individual fisherman, recreational fisherman that had boats that went in the water. Those boats where not allowed to get into the water when they were needed and I just found out about seven days later one of the reason boats couldn't get in was they didn't have enough life preservers and some of them didn't have proof of insurance. And I'm sure that there's a FEMA regulation that says that. But when a storm of this magnitude hits, you through those regulations out the window and you do what you have to do and start saving lives."

Lee just found out seven days later the reason of the problem with the boats ... Jindal's Katrina story is a lie..

[Kaelinda1]

wrm scvsuv said I don't know why you say that, friend. She's [Palin] a lot more intelligent than our illustrious Vice President, Joe Biden, who was so stupid he couldn't even tell Katie Couric who was President in 1929 when the Stock Market crashed."

Well, sir, there is a massive difference between being ignorant or uneducated or unknowledgeable about something and being downright stupid. Ignorance is curable; stupidity isn't.

NONE of the economic problems and NONE of the Iraqi or Afghani or Iranian problems can honestly be laid at Obama's doorstep. ALL of those things occurred during King George's reign. Those of you who want to blame Obama are letting your racism show.