[ilgipper]

The tea party completely blew it and got hosed with the presidential primary by not selecting, backing and uniting behind a legitimately small-government (but not Ron Paul wacko) candidate after the 2010 victories.

There just wasn't anyone to get behind. The TP didn't blow anything. There just wasn't a viable alternative. Most of our best people are very new on the big stage...first term governors and senators. People can consider Palin as that person, but she would have faced a huge battle to win in the general. She could have done it, but she would have had to reverse public opinion...not easy to do. Other than Romney, the only viable options I can think of are Perry (who blew it), Daniels (who just doesn't have it), Jendal (who blew his opportunity with his terrible debut the 2009 GOP response), or DeMint (who didn't want it).

[robowombat]

Bobby Jindal is more of a regular GOP moderate than is realized outside of LA. He definitely an insider and this being La. that means he is somewhat to the right of the regular GOP. His education reforms are doing one good thing, they are going to seriously damage the teachers union and that is a big chuck of the Dems fund base. So he is is smart and crafty something most regular GOP types are not.