Red Mosquito • View topic - Bobby Jindal will lead the GOP out of the wilderness

punkdavid · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:28 am

I think tonight was the national debutante party for 37 year-old Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Political junkies have known about him for some time, but after giving the GOP response to President Obama's first address to Congress, American now knows him. We'll certainly be seeing a lot more of this man in teh coming years.

So how did he do? I think there is a consensus that he performed better than John McCain did in front of the green screen the night that Obama wrapped up the Democratic nomination last June, so he's got that going for him.

Quote:

JIM LEHRER: Now that, of course, was Gov. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, making the Republican response. David, how well do you think he did?

DAVID BROOKS: Uh, not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I oppose the stimulus because I thought it was poorly drafted. But 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 right now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but that idea that we're just gonna - that government is going to have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that - In a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say "government is the 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. There's an intra-Republican debate. Some people say the Republican Party lost its way because they got too moderate. Some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and so he's making that case. I think it's insane, and I just think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

Quote:

Andrew Sullivan: It was also odd for Jindal to keep talking about the need for tax cuts - when Obama just announced a massive tax cut for 95 percent of working Americans. He gave no alternative proposal on the financial collapse; and tried to attack government spending simply because it's government spending. In a deepening depression, grown-ups can take a slightly different view of such spending in the short term. But give him his due: he did in the end concede that the GOP currently has a credibility problem on the fiscal issues they are now defining themselves with. This matters - it matters for the future of the GOP and the possibility of minimal accountability after an age that disdained it.

The rest was boilerplate. And tired, exhausted, boilerplate. If the GOP believes tax cuts - more tax cuts - are the answer to every problem right now, they are officially out of steam and out of ideas. And remember: this guy is supposed to be the smart one.

The liberals are either in speechless shock (like Rachel Maddow was immediately after the speech ended), or else are too overcome by bellylaughing to even sit at a keyboard to write at this early point.

I'm sure more will be spoken and written in the coming days. This thread is for all news related to the anointed savior of the Republican Party, Governor Piyush "Bobby" Jindal. Fill 'er up.

parchy · **Joined:** Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:50 am **Posts:** 11842

punkdavid wrote:

he performed better than John McCain did in front of the green screen the night that Obama wrapped up the Democratic nomination last June, so he's got that going for him.

so did like, corpses and things

punkdavid · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:52 am

The greatest hits from the Free Republic's blog, assembled with love by a friend at dkos.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/25 ... 215/701517

Mecca · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:56 am

yet another in PD's series, "Lets Make Fun of the Other Guys"

punkdavid · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:12 am

mecca2687 wrote:

yet another in PD's series, "Lets Make Fun of the Other Guys"

You're welcome to do the same, but I bet mine are more fun.

Mecca · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:25 am

punkdavid wrote:

mecca2687 wrote:

yet another in PD's series, "Lets Make Fun of the Other Guys"

You're welcome to do the same, but I bet mine are more fun.

I don't care enough to mock liberals. I'm more of a moderate anyway; a political cafeterian if you will.

Sunny · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:58 pm

Jindal did a good job emphasizing tax cuts, but he failed to stress the spending issue. Not only that, he didn't propose any alternative plans for economic recovery.

Green Habit · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:08 pm

Sunny wrote:

Jindal did a good job emphasizing tax cuts, but he failed to stress the spending issue. Not only that, he didn't propose any alternative plans for economic recovery.

It would have been nice if Jindal simply said that Obama's stimulus package was just a drop in the bucket of this economic downturn, and the only think that's going to turn this around is time.

But of course, that wouldn't have been politically viable.

Sunny · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:35 pm

Green Habit wrote:

Sunny wrote:

Jindal did a good job emphasizing tax cuts, but he failed to stress the spending issue. Not only that, he didn't propose any alternative plans for economic recovery.

It would have been nice if Jindal simply said that Obama's stimulus package was just a drop in the bucket of this economic downturn, and the only think that's going to turn this around is time.

But of course, that wouldn't have been politically viable.

Time isn't politically nor economically viable. It's like saying "let's sit on our ass and wait for the wounds to heal". No.

The entire system needs a major revamp, and it's a fight over which party has the solution. I didn't get the impression that Obama had any details in his plan and I didn't get the impression that Jindal had any plan whatsoever. I heard examples of American strength and personal responsibility, but what did he have in mind specifically for economic recovery?

If the GOP wants redemption and the trust of the American people, they need to LEAD, and not just let the Dems course of action fail.

corduroy_blazer · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:37 pm

I don't get all the hype about this guy. Does he even stand for anything?

Chris_H_2 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:41 pm

The speech was kind of weird in that it was pre-prepared without knowing precisely what Obama was going to spell out (other than the typical hyperbole). It was obviously laying the foundation for the Republican Party to make amends and go back to its grass roots of fiscal responsibility and small government. Although they can't just pretend that the past 8 years never happened.

$úñ_DëV|L · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:42 pm

I don't see how the opinion of a neoconservative like David Brooks on whether the Republican Party is moderate enough is at all useful.

Hatfield · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 3:11 pm

$úñ_DëV|L wrote:

I don't see how the opinion of a neoconservative like David Brooks on whether the Republican Party is moderate enough is at all useful.

That is a clever thing to say and it looks really good on an internet message board, but David Brooks represents a significant portion of the Republican base and his the ability to be objective so I think it is very useful to get his feelings on the Republican's "new hope".

Sunny, talking about tax cuts after Obama talked about them didn't sound good.

PD, thanks for starting this thread.

$úñ_DëV|L · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 3:58 pm

Hatfield wrote:

$úñ_DëV|L wrote:

I don't see how the opinion of a neoconservative like David Brooks on whether the Republican Party is moderate enough is at all useful.

That is a clever thing to say and it looks really good on an internet message board, but David Brooks represents a significant portion of the Republican base and his the ability to be objective so I think it is very useful to get his feelings on the Republican's "new hope".

Sunny, talking about tax cuts after Obama talked about them didn't sound good.

PD, thanks for starting this thread.

I know he represents a significant portion of the Republican base--the Neoconservatives--but that is one of the two portions of the Republican base that I could personally do without.

Sunny · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:03 pm

corduroy_blazer wrote:

I don't get all the hype about this guy. Does he even stand for anything?

He's young. He's non-white. He's articulate.

Wait, where have I heard this before?

Buffalohed · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:18 pm

This guy just creeps me out. I have never seen an indian man speak with a southern accent before, let alone such a thick one.

Chris_H_2 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:23 pm

Hatfield wrote:

That is a clever thing to say and it looks really good on an internet message board, but David Brooks represents a significant portion of the Republican base

No he doesn't. The Republican Party attracts more than just socially conservative white men from the south. And to that end, he has no ability to be objective when it comes to moderate positions (or positions that he perceives to be moderate).

Chris_H_2 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:24 pm

Sunny wrote:

corduroy_blazer wrote:

I don't get all the hype about this guy. Does he even stand for anything?

He's young. He's non-white. He's articulate.

Wait, where have I heard this before?

He's different -- he can't cure the cancer.

corduroy_blazer · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:33 pm

he's different -- he supports teaching intelligent design in the science classroom.

Hatfield · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:45 pm

Chris_H_2 wrote:

Hatfield wrote:

That is a clever thing to say and it looks really good on an internet message board, but David Brooks represents a significant portion of the Republican base

No he doesn't. The Republican Party attracts more than just socially conservative white men from the south. And to that end, he has no ability to be objective when it comes to moderate positions (or positions that he perceives to be moderate).

Chris, I'm from the south and grew up around many socially conservative white men. The republicans you are referring to don't know who the fuck David Brooks is. He's from New York and went to school in Chicago. I don't get what you are saying.

Bobby Jindal will lead the GOP out of the wilderness

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