Jindal: Missed Opportunity in 2012

It's too bad that Gov. Jindal's response to Obama's State of the Union was not nearly as impressive as conservatives had hoped. I think Bobby is a very down-to-earth politician who, for the most part, thinks pretty logically and makes good decisions for his state.

How is this going to affect his future as a possible Presidential candidate? He has been touted unofficially as one of the faces of the "New Republican Party," and it's no secret that this was his chance on the main stage, his grand opening to Americans all over the nation.

He flopped. I've seen this guy on many Sunday morning shows and he always has it together. He's confident, thorough, straight-forward. He was more like Mr. Rogers in the response and i found it to be slow, tedious and uncomfortable at best.

I definitely understand that it's much easier to appear impressive when you've got an audience cheering you on after every sentence as Obama did, and there's no way Jindal could have really compared simply for that fact. That aside, Obama is a much better orator than Jindal was last night.

If Obama supporters are as "Obamafied" as conservatives accuse, then they should be awfully concerned at the fact that there isn't a Republican politician today who can match up with the President, despite what happens in the next four years. Just look at Bush's first term-- things didn't turn out so well and he still got elected.

Can Jindal bounce back from this? Will the Sunday morning Bobby come out and give Obama a run for his money in 2012, or is the GOP still searching for their own personal jesus?

I don't know that it will really matter that much.

After what Obama is going to do to this country over the next four years, I think a lot of people will realize it was a mistake to elect someone based on their personality, or the fact that they can give an amazing speech. Jindal has better ideas and better opinions for this country, and that will be ever more evident by 2012.

I'm not saying that he will for sure be the candidate by then, but I do think the cult of personality voters will have learned the error of their ways.

reply to post by The Cyfre


In the end of this all, the 2012 elections will be a circus. With most people not trusting either party very much anymore. Obama's cult of personality will fail him when his policies cause the worlds economy to fail. Not to mention his new gun law that he wants to pass. I think he might end up doing more harm to our country then help.

Just to let everyone know I supported Obama when he won the election but I have changed my mind and now see that he is probably a bad idea for this country. I do not base this off religion/race/bigotry, I just now know anyone coming into office then spending as much money as this administration already has is bad for anyone.

Please refer to the 'Gloomy Predictions for 2009' link in my signature as to why this much government spending is a horrible idea.

Jindal came across as a very nice guy. That's not belittlement; I found him quite likeable. He also struck me as being intelligent, informed and truly concerned about the country in general and his state in particular.

The problem is the GOP seems to have run out of new ideas. Tax cuts for the wealthy, "trickle down" economics and deregulation of everything just won't cut it anymore. It's the same old stuff we rejected in the last election.

reply to post by Sestias


They have run out of ideas. They are just spouting the same old same old and people are tired of hearing it.

In the end both parties are untrustworthy.

I will submit though, he does seem to be a very intelligent man. The GOP sound have just written a better speech for him...

We all can agree that the speech was not Jindals best. Infact I think it was a little to early to give Jindal that responsibility and I think the republican party was in a rush to show off this "we'r ready for 2012" deal.... But I disagree with some of the pundits making out as if his done... we have little under 4years still to go before the next elections and during that time we will have other matters of interest and relevance to deal with... so I doubt by 2012 folks will remember the flop of a speech made by Jindal... never the less I think it did push him back a little.

Jindal in my opinion is an extremest conservative.... not the kind of person I would want as president because he is so far to the right. He is fully against abortion, even in the case of rape, incest and the last I heard even in the case of threat to life of mother. Not to mention the guy is extremely conservative on any rights towards those of opposite sexuality. I mean I oppose gay/lesbian marriages but I support civil unions or rights of recognition, and I believe that sooner or later something will have to be successfully implemented statewide.

Look as said, theres still 4years and conservatives/republicans should really focus on solutions for america... the true republican way... focus on the short term goal like attracting more younger voters over that time period and appealing to blacks and hispanics... and the republican party is already trying to attract that group although they didnt have to make one their leader to necessarily do that... they could have just promoted more of a presence of black and hispanics at the republican convention... I think steele in particular is a joke... anybody can see this guy isnt a good leader... and I think that the concern of attracking minorities by the republican party was what made them choose steele, which isnt really the way to go.

There are other great possible candidates... Huckabee, Pawlenty... but I suggest short term goals be focused first... and that was where the republican party went wrong.

Originally posted by nyk537
I don't know that it will really matter that much.

After what Obama is going to do to this country over the next four years, I think a lot of people will realize it was a mistake to elect someone based on their personality, or the fact that they can give an amazing speech.

nyk with that attitude of yours and plenty of your fellow conservatives, or republicans, or neocons or whatever you prefer to label yourselves these days to suit conditions, america may verywell be run down. This administration has been barely a month in office and already you fellas are proclaiming doomsday. I mean I would figure after 8years of what was a disaster of a conservative administration I figured maybe you folks would tone down abit on the "doomday" talk.

If we dont have cooperation in this nation or will power how the hell can you expect this nation to improve? I mean do you really think this bill got past without any conservative influence? For petes sake the dems had to bend over knees just to get 3 republicans to sign. Heck since January there was a bipartisan approach.... Obama even added $200 billion worth of tax cuts in the stimulus to gain republican support in jan, and you know what, they decided to play hardball and shout out by the sidelines instead of being productive. You cannot expect the president of the united states himself to get the entire nation out of this mess... thats just childish.

Ultimately if we dont have a united america, the country will go down in the next 4years, and the republicans, conservatives at the moment are continously trying to steer it that way. You folks may think it will give you back power in 2012, but whats the use of having any power when you helped drive the country to the ground?

Jindal has better ideas and better opinions for this country, and that will be ever more evident by 2012.

There are other better more moderate choices than Jindal.... and theres just under 4years to go over it.

[edit on 27-2-2009 by Southern Guardian]

Holy crap. Did he really take a swipe at volcano monitoring? Does he really think that's pork?

Jindal may not be aware of this, but volcanoes will sometimes erupt, and kill people. Fifty-seven people were killed when Mount St. Helens blew, and this was on a Sunday when the loggers weren't at work. Now follow along: there is a super-volcano under Yellowstone that has some people very frightened -- for fear that eruption would wipe out a quarter of our country. Geologically, this baby is roughly due to blow (although the odds of it happening in even the next 50 years are slim, so don't freak out). If it blows, then it kills tens of millions of people. 74,000 years ago, an Indonesian super-eruption kicked off a 1000-year drought. And does anybody else remember learning about Pompeii? Not only will our country be over when this thing blows, but anybody within 100-to-600 miles would be in immediate danger...of death.

Somebody should monitor volcanic activity, and it should fall under the category of a "public service." These are the sorts of things that we pay taxes for -- to be warned before we get blown sky-high.

The anti-intellectual sector of the GOP needs to get over this idea that all scientific research is useless pork.

Jindal is a Rhodes Scholar. He's smarter than this.


[edit on 27-2-2009 by theWCH]

As a person who would like to see the conservatives pull it back together, I have to say that I think Mr. Jindal is a terrible choice of people for the GOP to rely on.

It's really a shame how the GOP is flailing about, aointing a different person every day to be their new savior. One day it's Palin, the next it's Jindal (who is extremely weird also I might add), the next day it's Cantor, or that clown Steele and the next day it's Limbaugh, it's an awful display.

Tey have no message aside from the same old, stale rhetoric that we've all heard for years now, and the American voting public soundly rejected in November, 2008.

Unless and until the GOP completely divorces itself from that FAR-Right wing of religious and societal intolerance, they are a doomed party, a dinosaur on the political scene.

The GOP in general, as I see it, spend way too much time pandering to that Far-right faction that they call their "Base", that they alienate the lions share of traditional conservative voters who would otherwise consider voting for the GOP.

isn't it hilarious how the Gov of Louisiana (Katrina anyone?) is opposed to government money to monitor potential natural disasters (volcanoes?)


More "my team" politics at its worst.

Obama is less than 2 months into term - and we're already talking about his successor?

Conservatives are digging deep.

Too Deep.

Aren't you guys kind of getting ahead of yourselves? I mean the new President as only been seated for a month. I didn't vote for the man, but I am atleast going to keep an opened mind and if he does a good job I may vote for him next election. You guys are already looking for the next guy to vote for.

reply to post by jd140


Surprisingly enough, i'm capable of supporting the current President while looking to the future. I think if the government were a little better at multi-tasking like this, then more things would get done!

I certainly haven't written Obama off in the least, but the GOP is desperate like the Democrats have been for the past number of years, and like it or not, Bobby Jindal's first opportunity on the main stage as a rebuttal to Obama's first state of the union address is newsworthy. How could it not bring up questions about his candidacy in 2012? We'll be entertaining ideas about who will run for the next year and then we'll start seeing people declare. The process has become much much shorter.