Posted on 10/03/2009 2:52:02 AM PDT by chemicalman
Several months ago, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was the hot ticket in the Republican Party. Unfortunately, he bombed when giving the GOP response to President Obama's address to Congress in February. Now, he is registering at the bottom of the pack among potential GOP presidential hopefuls. At the recent Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council in Washington D.C., Jindal finished seventh with only 5% of the vote.
With such lackluster results, Jindal is revamping his strategy. In an interview with Politico, Jindal recommended that Republicans work with President Obama to find compromise on the issue of health care reform. He advised that Republicans approach the President and say "we're willing to work with you in a bipartisan way."
The offer to compromise is quite a different approach from the one that Jindal has exhibited in recent Fox News interviews. He is also pursuing a different strategy from many Republicans who seem more interested in stopping any kind of health care bill.
In the same Politico interview, the Governor refused to endorse incumbent Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter for re-election. Even though Jindal headlined a Vitter fundraiser several months ago, he did not offer any kind of support for the Senator in the interview. This stance will not endear Jindal to conservatives in the Republican Party, who have rallied around Vitter in recent months. It is hard to imagine Jindal endorsing Vitter's opponent, Democrat Congressman Charlie Melancon, who supports the policies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama, so his stance is perplexing.
While Jindal has been tending to other business or traveling to fundraisers in other states, Vitter has been conducting 22 town hall meetings on the health care issue. While Jindal has been silent on the tea party movement, Vitter has been vocally supporting the local groups and leading the charge. Whether it is the issue of Obama cabinet members or the President's liberal agenda, Vitter has been in strong opposition. In contrast, Jindal has been taking a much lower profile position.
In the interview, Jindal noted that his focus is not on the presidency, but on running for re-election in 2011. However, Jindal should not assume that he will receive a free ride in the next election. Jindal's poll numbers are decent, but not particularly impressive. One problem is that he has been labeled a hypocrite on the issue of the stimulus bill. After criticizing the legislation, the Governor not only accepted the federal money, he then traveled the state distributing stimulus checks to local communities.
If Jindal has weak poll numbers in 2011, he may face competition from either Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu or State Treasurer John Kennedy. In recent weeks, Kennedy has taken the lead on the important issue of streamlining government and has acted more like a Governor than Jindal. He is conducting media interviews each day and offering concrete ideas on how to save taxpayer money. One of Kennedy's proposals is to refurbish Charity Hospital instead of building an expensive new LSU teaching hospital. Again, Jindal has been largely absent from the political debate on the issue of streamlining state government or determining the future of health care in New Orleans. If Jindal had shown leadership, he could have resolved the hospital conflict months ago.
With Kennedy has been leading on the state level and Vitter has been leading on the national level, maybe Jindal figured it was time to return to the debate. Yet, his message of compromise will not help his poll numbers here in Louisiana or among Republican activists nationwide. A large majority of Republicans want to defeat the President's health care plan, not compromise with him.
Common, Bobby. You can do better.
It really does not matter, since according to the “birthers,” Bobby Jindal is not a natural born citizen.
Jindal obviously jumped the shark, or he was overrated
to begin with.
In my opinion, anyone that plays nice with Marxist should
be thrown out with all the RINOS.
“At the recent Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council in Washington D.C., Jindal finished seventh with only 5% of the vote.”
1. Mike Huckabee 170 28.48%
2. Mitt Romney 74 12.40%
3. Tim Pawlenty 73 12.23%
4. Sarah Palin 72 12.06%
5. Mike Pence 71 11.89%
6. Newt Gingrich 40 6.70%
7. Bobby Jindal 28 4.69%
8. Rick Santorum 15 2.51%
9. Ron Paul 13 2.18%
10. Undecided 31 5.19%
11. Other 10 1.68%
Goodbye Bobby. Final blow to his presidential ambitions.
While I think Huckabee might make a viable candidate in the primaries, Romney won’t be. He’s DOA. Tim Pawlenty can give it a shot, but he’s got a very steep road to travel.
My big question is this: Where is Senator DeMint’s name? At this time, and I know it’s early days, the nomination is his to lose.
Way too much hero worship among conservatives.
Bummer for Jindal, he seemed like a really classy guy - but he probably hired a bunch of “professional” Republican advisers as I’m sure that he didn’t have much time to spend on national issues, given the hell-hole he’s trying to run over there. As to the poll where Huckster is up 2:1,...the only poll that matters, to me at least, is one where you have to pay-to-play, and on that poll (i.e., Amazon.com), it’s all Sarah.
I actually like Bobby. I have seen him speak and he does great, but I cannot figure out what he is trying to do here.
When he runs for president, I am afraid that some will claim that he is not a natural born citizen.
Personally I prefer someone who doesn’t need a team of advisors to tell him or her which way the wind is blowing.
Looks like a popularity poll, and not a values poll.
I think McCain is having an evil influence on the party. Jindal was never a very forceful person, but I always thought he was more clear-cut than this in his conservatism. Looks like McCain (who is supposedly trying to remake the party in his own image) got to him. Too bad for Jindal.
The governor is headed down the wrong path. I like the guy a lot and I hope somebody pulls him back quickly from this plethora of political mistakes he has embarked upon.
Jindal-going to fundraisers and raising money
Vitter-going to townhalls and listening to the people
Now we know why Jindal has fallen off the wangon.
For the most part, polls are more of an attempt to drive public opinion rather than guage it. In the run up to last year’s election, many polls included people who weren’t running while excluding people who were actively campaigning.
American Idle politics at its best.
No, No, No. No frigging compromise on health care ever. Everytime someone even allegedly on our side says, “everyone agrees we need to fix health care”, I want to puke. All that does is give democrat trash and their media the ammunition to say “everyone wants healthcare reform” without defining what “reform” really means or even who “everyone” really is. Jindal ought to be ashamed of himself.
Someone needs to tell Jindahl that this has nothing to do with “health care reform.”
Obama and his dem cohorts are trying to launch a complete government takeover of the entire healthcare industry - one sixth of the American economy. Like Rush says, “If they control your healthcare, they own you.” It’s all about control and power, Bobby....NOT reform.
And by the way, Gov. Jindahl, when was the last time the democrats approached the Republicans and said, “We would like to work with you in a bi-partisan manner?” I hear the sound of crickets.....
“Personally I prefer someone who doesn’t need a team of advisors to tell him or her which way the wind is blowing.”
Obviously. I’m just guessing here, but maybe he was simply trying to have someone tell him what issues are important and what the best positions are...so he doesn’t get nailed like Sarah did. Reagan didn’t need the advisers, but then he didn’t have an office at the time. I just think that the ‘professional class’ of Republicans is so dominated by the McCain types that finding a decent adviser is next to impossible, within the party (even though 75% of us FReepers could do the job right). What would be neat would be Rush vetting and selecting advisers for people like Jindal....that would keep Jindal out of these messes.
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