Bobby Jindal Takes A Beating (CBS cites Juan Williams & Nina Easton as Gov's "brethren")

CBS News ^ | February 26, 2009 | Brian Montopoli

[presidio9]

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.

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.

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.

[presidio9]

Brian Montopoli (left) with friend.

I am beyond expecting anything but fake but accurate reporting from CBS News. For that matter, why would it even be news that Rachael Maddow and Chris Matthews didn't love a Republican resonse to President Obama. But it annoys me to see a journalist pretty much accuse someone of incompetance, without doing enough of his job to know that Williams (a super smart guy and close friend of Justice Thomas) is the Fox's in house black liberal, and Nina Easton wrote a sympathetic biography of John Kerry. The first Fox quote supplied was taken out of context from Brit Hume. The second one was taken out of context from Easton, and she was mostly charitable to Jindal. The rest were from Williams, and I agree that he hated the speech, as expected.

[skeeter]

Leftists are children. Vapid and nasty.

[gondramB]

Jindal did not deliver a good speech even though he had a decent written speech. I understand Repubs being a bit bummed.

But why is the liberal press tripping over themselves to criticize the speech? Perhaps they are scared of him in spite of an off day. And maybe we should not write him off for a bad day either.

[presidio9]

Leftists are children. Vapid and nasty.

They know they have to destroy this guy quickly, because he's much more dangerous to Obama than someone like Palin. This has been their response to every major Republican political figure since Nixon.

[joesbucks]

It wasn't just leftists. It was folks who would have loved a Jindal slam dunk. They didn't get it. And Rush was simply saying what he said to get press. He got it.

I too was expecting something very Reaganesque. It didn't happen. And that's too bad.

[editor-surveyor]

Lovely couple; who do the kids look like?

[pointsal]

Face it. Nina Easton and her hubby are in the bag for the Mittster. She should declare herself as unreservedly biased. Nina is just another big-haired blond talking head.

[skeeter]

Thats why I believe the GOP should target the media before the democrat party.

Its the media that make the buffoons and clowns in the democrat party look competent. Their party would immediately collapse without the cover.

[Canedawg]

I’ve come to realize that the MSM’s preoccupation with Jindal’s delivery is a smokescreen for not spending any time criticizing and analyzing the substance of Zeros’s speech.

[editor-surveyor]

Jindal is a Rhodesian, and needs to be written off completely until he supplies some bonafide evidence to counter that ugly mark.

His speech indicates his ability to function under fire, not anything anout his politics, and thus is also a huge negative in his column.

[presidio9]

If Obama’s cronies have their way, there will no longer be a conservative media with which to attack the (liberal) mainstream media.

[editor-surveyor]

"They know they have to destroy this guy quickly, because he's much more dangerous to Obama than someone like Palin."

That bit of comic relief will at least make the evening a jovial one!

[mkcc30]

Absolutely in ANY war the first target is communications.

[presidio9]

Jindal is a Rhodesian, and needs to be written off completely until he supplies some bonafide evidence to counter that ugly mark.

Sorry, too cryptic. Was it a referrence to Bill Clinton?

[NickFlooding]

This is all MSM spin continuing what they did in the campaign. Jindal did a great job and they wont color my personal thoughts. They can say what they want me to believe but I'll believe the truth anyway.

[mkcc30]

The time is just about past for words and speeches.

[italianquaker]

It suits there purpose in order to deflect attention from odumbos lies or ignorance about the invention of automobiles

[presidio9]

That bit of comic relief will at least make the evening a jovial one!

In your mind Sarah Palin is the greater threat to Obama. What's your evidence?

[editor-surveyor]

Too cryptic for you?

A plain statement for those that understand history, and globalist politics.

[gondramB]

>>Jindal is a Rhodesian, and needs to be written off completely until he supplies some bonafide evidence to counter that ugly mark.<<

Is he? I’m reasonably sure I read he was born in Louisiana.

>>His speech indicates his ability to function under fire, not anything anout his politics, and thus is also a huge negative in his column.
<<

Agreed.

But I do find it interesting how intent on the speech the MSM is to jump on the speech. During the Clinton admin, did they ever give a darn about the Republican response?