Bobby Jindal: The future of the GOP
Despite the amusing designation as “Bush’s Asian-babe PR shill,” loyal readers know how unhappy I’ve been with the GOP leadership in Washington–and how ambivalent I feel about the GOP presidential field.
There is one Republican I’m absolutely thrilled about, though: Bobby Jindal.
He’s taking office today as Louisiana governor. It’s a historic moment–and a proud moment:
The inauguration was set to begin at 10 a.m. with music from the West Monroe High School marching band. Pascal Calogero, chief justice of the state Supreme Court, was to swear in the 36-year-old Jindal at noon. He’ll be Louisiana’s first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction…
…Jindal, a Republican, succeeds Democrat Kathleen Blanco, who chose not to run for re-election to a second term after harsh criticism of her response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants, Jindal leaves a U.S. House seat to become governor. He won the gubernatorial post outright in the October primary, getting 54 percent of the vote in a field of a dozen candidates — reversing his loss to Blanco four years earlier.
The boyish-looking Jindal will be the youngest U.S. governor in office, but he’s used to being among the youngest faces in the room at many of his previous posts.
Just 32 during his first gubernatorial run, Jindal by then already had served as Louisiana’s health care secretary, president of one of its university systems and an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Bush. Republican former Gov. Mike Foster tapped Jindal to be the state’s health secretary in 1996, when Jindal was only 24.
You can watch the ceremony live here.
The Daily Advertiser of Lafayette welcomes Jindal:
Today, Bobby Jindal becomes governor of Louisiana. He will face major challenges in his new position, particularly as he strives for adoption of his No. 1 goal - rewriting the state’s ethics code. Determined to make Louisiana ethics the “gold standard” for the nation, he will call a special session to deal only with ethics reform. If he fails, he will continue calling special sessions until the reform package is adopted.
We believe he can win the ethics reform battle and meet all his other challenges, which include hurricane recovery measures, health-care improvements, economic reform, improvements in education, successfully combating crime, increasing safety for Louisiana citizens and analyzing and monitoring state spending.
Jindal has proved himself in the arena of government service. We first took notice of him in 1996, when he was appointed secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. That put him in charge of 12,000 employees and a $4 billion budget - in his first government job. He inherited a $400 million budget deficit and, in a relatively short period of time, turned it into a $220 million budget surplus.
In 1998, he was appointed executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the future of Medicare.He returned to state government in 1999, accepting the post of president of the University of Louisiana system.
In 2001, he was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That made him the top policy adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
His experience has undoubtedly prepared him to deal with Louisiana’s many health-care problems. Serving as president of the University of Louisiana system prepared him to deal with education issues.
…Jindal brings to the governor’s office broad experience, proven ability and a remarkable intellect. He has a record of success in every government position he has held. We expect that record to remain intact during his tenure as governor.
He’s the real deal.
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- Bobby Jindal - Less Conservative Than You Think » Pursuing Holiness
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Totally agree. Not much I can add to this. Jindal for President in ‘20?
Bobby Jindal — The Future of the Republican Party
ABSOLUTELY !!
Yes - young, principled, faithful persons will revive the Republican party and conservativism.
Educated at Oxford and still a Republican, he gets my vote.
I have a lot of respect for him. I hope he really does well. He has a handful; taking care of business.
If you want an argument, you’ll have to pick another subject.
Finally. A qualified person in for a change.
And so accomplished at such an early age.
Not bad for the party of bigots & racists…huh?
When will America wake the bleep up? The left is precisely in every way what they accuse the right of being. The left is mean spirited (actually vicious), the left is racist, the left hurts children (that survive abortions), and on and on. It was Republicans who were the supporters of every civil rights accomplishment…not the other way around.
Very sad that they get away with the constant lies.
Now, all the GOP heavy hitters need to do is get out of the way for other fresh, young faces. Let a few more conservatives make some waves, and we just might restore the party to its Reagan-like leadership.
I hope the best for him, but I’ll wait and see how he does as Govenor before I endorse him in any way. There has been to many before him that have looked good and just turned out to be a dissappointment.
Good to see Louisiana has a real leader at the helm. He has his work cut out for him and I wish him nothing but success.
We just have to hang on to the party and not allow it to be taken down by people like McCain and Huckabee.
And maybe New Hampshire could secede from the Union if they are going to nominate two liberals (McCain and Hillary). At a minimum get them out of the early primary states. Puh-leeze, what are they smoking up there?
A positive step for Louisiana to say the least …
People such as Jindal, Michael Steele, J.C. Watts and others are the future of the GOP … Too many out of touch dinosaurs being constantly re-elected at all levels … Time to get rid of them and bring in new and fresh people …
Congratulations to Mr. Jindal and may he lead his state to better days …
In one of our other threads you presented a poll with electable vs principled being the subject matter. I offered it should be electable and principled. So, here it is: Jindal - electable and principled. HOO BA!
“Bobby Jindal: The future of the GOP”
Agreed
“There is one Republican I’m absolutely thrilled about, though: Bobby Jindal.”
No argument here!
“He’ll be Louisiana’s first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction…”
“The Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants,…”.
I know I appear picky, and please correct me if I am wrong.
But, since race was alluded to in passing….
I remember reading/learning ~45 years ago that the Indians of India are in fact Caucasians, as are Afgahnis; and, also, Semites - Jews and Arabs.
This assumes that the number of “races” is still considered to be three: Caucasian, African, Asian (the last two not the names as I had learned them…don’t know if it’s PC to mention those, however innocent and neutral).
Actually, I’ve always felt that there is only ONE race - human.
Perhaps the conventional subdivisions should be referred to as tribes, or strains?
Otherwise, the word “race” will become even further meaningless.
But, again, there is only one - the human - race.
(No, I’m not trying “to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony”.)
And, in case you’re wondering…my grandparents came from southern, Mediterranean Europe;
my in-laws also did, and my father in-law is as dark, if not darker, than a significant number of Africans;
southern, mediterrranean Europeans have a not insignificant rate of carrying sickle cell, Thalassemia, and other hemoglobinopathy genes; as well as a type of red blood cell enzyme deficiency; all these conditions, of course, being known to occur among Africans.
But, what else would you expect after millennia of trading and migration at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and Asia?
One race - human.
#12 On January 14th, 2008 at 11:22 am, mngirl said:
“We just have to hang on to the party and not allow it to be taken down by people like McCain and Huckabee.
And maybe New Hampshire could secede from the Union if they are going to nominate two liberals (McCain and Hillary). At a minimum get them out of the early primary states. Puh-leeze, what are they smoking up there?”
I know.
I’m a New Hampshire boy.
It’s so sad.
The state is being invaded by blue-staters from Mass.
Young and principled perhaps, but let’s let some time pass before we anoint him the incarnation of GOP synthesis. Only time reveals the truth of one’s conviction and mettle. Considering the spotty pasts and vacillating positions of the anointed front-runners, one has to strongly consider how current promised mirror past actions. These divergent realities leave virtually only one standing and it isn’t McCainRawmoneyThompsonHuckaboom.
Is he 35 yet? I am looking for someone worth voting for.
Re: 15 Granite.
Nice thoughts. Good to read.
Way to go Piyush!!
SECOND LOOK AT JINDAL 2012?
eh?
Kate, our gracious friend, and the host of A colombo-americana’s perspective has a relative who lends his professional skills to Team Jindal.
They have kindly forwarded this live-streaming link to the Bobby Jindal innaguration today.
Click and enjoy some REAL change.
My favorite part of that article:
Too often we see great proposals fail by a handful of votes, to be promply forgotten. He made a promise and he intends to make the legislature keep working until they fulfill it. It remains to be seen how successful he’ll be as Governor, but I’d say he’s off to a good start.
Bobby, Bobby, he’s our man.
If he can’t do it…
Well, he is in Louisiana, good luck.
GOD be with him and keep him.
Forgive me if I don’t start hyperventilating just yet. I don’t know anything about Bobby Jindal outside of Michelle’s posts, but the resume presented here scares me a little. Apparently this guy was well-connected enough at 25 to be put in charge of a $4B budget–his first government job! How exactly does that happen?
Since then he has changed jobs every year or two? That doesn’t impress me as much as it apparently does Michelle. But then I’ve seen “serial executives” in action before.
At the mega-corporation where I work, some managers seem to change departments on an 18-month clock tick. To some it may seem that their resumes just get more and more impressive, but what I find is that these guys tend to make a mess of things and then move on before they have to deal with it. Sometimes the effects of decisions don’t become evident for months or even years after they are made.
Even if Mr. Jindal is not like the system-playing careerists I’ve seen, it seems that he has not had the benefit of staying in any one job long enough to learn from his own mistakes. Presumably he’ll stay on as governor for a full four years, which should be long enough for at least some of his own chickens to come home to roost.
I wonder, will it be the longest he has held any job in his life?
Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana!
God Bless America!!!
I hope he will be invited to speak at the National Republican Convention later this year. (hint, hint)
No need to wait for Jindal as Pres in ‘20. He can run in ‘16, (’12 if a Democrat {shudder} wins in ‘08).
#24 notanexpert said:
Yeah, them Louisiana, Indian American, Catholic, ol’ boy, country club network types always keep the plumb jobs for their own, don’t they. If Bobby Jindal just edumucated himself and pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, he wouldn’t have to embarrass himself by relying solely on his “blue-blood” connections.
/sarc off.
I agree with Boomer, et al. Too early for hyperventilating. I hope he’s good, Louisiana needs decent stewardship to get past its third world mindset. My Mom’s Cajun, so back off.
I don’t know the full scope of Jindal’s political philosophy. I just hope he’s a full-spectrum conservative, unlike the majority of our current presidential candidates. If he is, then he’ll go farther than he already has.
Who knows. Maybe someday I’ll be running for office as a “Jindal Conservative.”
Hey, he’s already got more legitimate experience than Hillary or Obama.
Jindal first caught my eye during the Katrina crisis.
I saw him being interviewed on CNN and thought to myself, “Wow…who is this guy?”
Definitely a conservative to watch.
Everything I’ve heard from him and read about him has been positive. Definitely worth watching.
Straightening out Louisiana politics is gonna be very tough, even Superman would be challenged.
Thank God governor Blank-O is gone.
Hyperbole, but ….
Future President?
I wish him well and look forward to hearing more about him.
“Good old boy” Net Work some of the same people in place. Mark my words, you cant trust any louisiana politician, I live here. I think Bobby has good intentions but he can’t beat the machine
Let me tell you all something.
I am a conservative. My first vote was for Reagan in 1980 and aside from a vote for Clinton in 1988, I have voted Republican every since.
Hey! Gimme a break! I was naive about politics, but four years of Clinton showed me the error of my ways. I voted for Dole in 1996 and Bush in 2000 and 2004. I learned my lesson quick.
I was a TV news producer for an NBC affiliate in Lake Charles, La., when Jindal ran for Governor in 2004. He and an aide came into the newsroom late one night when the 10 p.m. news crew (reporters, photographers and anchors) were all out to dinner. I was the only one there. We sat down and I interviewed him on camera so one of our talent could put a package together later. (I started in TV as a news photographer.)
We talked for 45 minutes and I asked him every question I could think of including his thoughts on the liberal leaning of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (they had just made another assinine ruling) and the “good old boy network” in Louisiana government and how he would deal with that. There were no “out of bounds” questions and his handler never said a word during the interview.
I asked him questions that a liberal like Dan Rather might ask. I believe in “fair and balanced” reporting. I REALLY wanted him to tell our viewers why the Rush Limbaughs and the Kos kids should vote for him. I hit him from all sides and he never flinched.
Now, I understand that 45 minutes isn’t adequate time to truly get to know a man, but his record and behavior since then have been consistent with the interview I did with him.
I believe him and believe in him. I know he has a tough road ahead, but I think he has what it takes to show the good ole’ boy network in Louisiana that their days are numbered. And I’ll also tell you this: if he ever does run for POTUS, He’s got my vote.
I know you don’t know me from Adam, I’m fairly new here. I have been reading for a while, but rarely comment. But, for what it’s worth, that’s my two cents. I love my state (even in the condition it’s in) and I think Jindal is the man that all Louisianans will look back on (in eight years) and say “He was the man that brought us from being the laughing stock of the nation to being a state we can be proud to call our home.
#38
I sure hope you’re right.
Thanks for this post, Michelle. Keep bringing politicians like this to our attention!