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Should Jindal Be Kicking Himself Over 2012?
Those who follow my posting obsessively (i.e., weirdos) know that Gov. Bobby Jindal has been my favorite presidential hopeful since 2009. Sadly, my ardor is waning. The complete lack of people who agree with me makes inclined to give up and move on.
That’s too bad. Bobby Jindal has a great story to tell and is a strong conservative with wide experience. His problem is timing: in 2016 he’s running against the strongest GOP field ever. What if he had pulled an Obama and run in 2012 when he was “too young”? Would it have worked?
I suspect he would have won the nomination. Remember how desperate we were to find an alternative to Romney? I voted for Santorum in the Michigan primary — a man I didn’t particularly like — just to protest the Romney juggernaut. The polls gave each challenger a bump in turn; heck, we even gave Herman Cain a look. Herman Cain! Bobby Jindal would have swept those jokers aside, swept up the anti-Romney vote, and brought in extra voters on his own. It would have been a cakewalk.
Beating President Obama wouldn’t have been so easy, but I think Jindal could have done better than Romney. Still, Obama’s historic presidency and Jindal’s pencil-necked geekiness — which the progress of years is ameliorating, but would have been an intense negative in 2012 — would probably have combined to deny Jindal the win, just barely. I think.
But even in that event, we’d hardly be worse off than we are now, and Jindal would be among the top picks for 2016.
Published in Politics
He’s like the girl I know I should like — pretty, smart, nice personality — but don’t.
Good effing grief folks. I’m in Louisiana. Jindal has been a fiscal disaster.
Oh and his religious freedom EO is all about YEEHAW, he did not lift a finger to help get a proposed bill through the state legislature this Spring. Nada, Zip, Zilch, Zero, NOTHING.
Great in fantasy, not reality.
He did have a real job before returning to Louisiana to become head of Department of Health and Hospitals. That is a story in itself. He made a personal cold call to the then governor.
It’s good to hear from someone “on the ground.” But, also, why do all the good leaders have to be president? We need good leaders in other positions too?
He’s no leader. He squandered two mandate elections. Then again he was not running against much of a field in either.
Fredosphere, I have a question, rather simple one. Have you ever read any conservative Louisiana blogs? I doubt it, seriously doubt it.
Here in Louisiana, Jindal’s endorsement has been poison since early 2010. No candidate here really wants it. Vitter’s has been like gold to a candidate.
I’ve seen comments to this effect elsewhere, but I’d love to see a more in-depth analysis than is allowed in the Ricochet 200 words. Do you have a link? I’ve heard Governor Jindal talk about his record and it sounded pretty good. Can you direct us toward some of these conservative Louisiana blogs?
I thought Romney was the best of a bad field, and that in retrospect Pawlenty got out way too early, which raises a question as to how badly he wanted it. Even against a flawed candidate, Obama’s re-election was unimpressive, being I think the first candidate to win re-election with less support than his initial election. I think to this day he was beatable, and for the life of me I cannot understand why a potentially stronger candidates did not enter the primaries. Did Mitchell et al think Obama was unbeatable? Perhaps Troy has some insight on this.
Surely you exaggerate. He won reelection easily in 2011. He got 2/3 of the vote in a bipartisan “jungle” primary. Yes, his poll numbers have sunk since, but somebody in Louisiana must have liked him once.
If I remember correctly Pawlenty simply ran out of money.
http://www.thehayride.com and use search function. There’s plenty of trying to prop him up but this year not so much.
Here is the fiscal problem in Louisiana. There was a LOT of sales tax revenue post Katrina and a LOT of expenses. Those allocations haven’t gone down to pre-Katrina levels one iota, while sales tax receipts are down.
Our State Constitution mandates lots of payments (amendments during the Edwin Edwards Era) and Jindal has done exactly ZERO to get rid of them. We have slush funds galore (some even officially have slush fund in their name) and still on the books.
Jindal’s two main positives were ethics reform (with no real teeth) and school choice (which was really ramrodded by local behind the scenes heavyweight, Lane Grigsby), He spent most of his political capital on the former at the start of his first term. He had to make deals with longtime heavyweights (devils) to get this through, what they are I don’t know.
Now in a disaster situation, Jindal is the best there is. He’s on top of every fact, statistic and facet, with any good idea from anyone being promoted and acted upon.
Still, he is the best governor that Louisiana has had in my lifetime and it isn’t even close. I’ve been on this earth since 1955. Huey P. Long really screwed up the state for generations.
Recent polling shows that Jindal cannot beat Hillary here in Louisiana, a solid Red state.
http://thehayride.com/2015/06/the-latest-hayridemarbleport-polling-results-are-in-vitter-still-leads-and-jindals-stock-is-still-down/
Pawlenty foolishly kamikazed his campaign into Michelle Bachmann’s in an early debate:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gloves-come-off-between-pawlenty-and-bachmann-in-gop-debate/
It was either his own personal derangement or an advisor telling him he had to win Iowa and needed to destroy Bachmann to do it.
He alienated a lot of people and looked looney doing so. He was doomed.