by Damozel | Ha ha, is there anything funnier than a Republican "rising star" when he or she actually succeeds in getting people to listen -- that is, really listen? Exhibit A being, of course, Sarah Palin.
Exhibit B would be Bobby Jindal, who made a nationally televised speech in response to Barack Obama's that got him compared to Kenneth the Page. For his pains, he has been "roundly panned" -- and not just by Democrats. Can even Rush Limbaugh, who defended him, save him now?
And those were the good reviews.
Laura Ingraham, the talk radio host; David Brooks, the New York Times columnist; and Juan Williams of Fox News were among Mr. Jindal’s unimpressed reviewers in television commentary...(NYT)
Partly this is because Jindal (unlike, say, rising star Sarah Palin) speaks in comprehensible sentences, too many of which -- from the standpoint of living-in-denial Republicans, I mean -- were conciliatory and acknowledged the validity of the many, many reasons why most Americans have repudiated the GOP.
“He went in there with high expectations, probably too high for any politician,” said David Johnson, a Republican political strategist. “Republicans are looking for a voice to lead them out of the wilderness.”
In his speech, Mr. Jindal said Republicans would work with Mr. Obama in areas where they agreed with him, and he offered a kind of apology for his party. “You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline and personal responsibility,” Mr. Jindal said. “Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust, and rightly so.”...
Mr. Johnson faulted Mr. Jindal for...bringing up Hurricane Katrina...which Mr. Jindal cited as an example of the failure of big government.
“The one thing Republicans want to forget,” Mr. Johnson said, “is Katrina.”(NYT)Not that Republicans were the only critics. Gawker:
For purposes of comparison, Gawker's got a video of Jindal and one containing random Kenneth Purcell quotes. It is uncanny. And you can hear Kenneth the Page's response to the internet response here. (For the record, Kenneth is offended by the comparison.)
Thers at Whiskey Fire compares Jindal to Gilligan rather than Kenneth.
Pareene said:
Princess Sparkle Pony said:
Sadly, No! posted a shorter version of his actual speech:
And before he even opened his mouth, Tweety at MSNBC was heard to mutter, "Oh God." Hear him say it here!
Finally, at HuffPost, Mark Nickolas wrote:
After offering-up the latest GOP lie that $8 billion of the stimulus was line-itemed for "a ‘magnetic levitation’ line from Las Vegas to Disneyland" in last night's widely-panned speech, you'll never guess where Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) travels today:
After giving one of the biggest speeches in his time as a politician, Gov. Bobby Jindal is heading to Disney World.
Jindal's office says the governor and his family leave for the Orlando vacation resort today.
Of course, Jindal has his defenders as well as his detractors. Rush Limbaugh, for example, is outraged at Jindal's Republican critics.
The far more fascinating response came from blogger Ann Althouse, who noted the "instinctive revulsion" towards Jindal.
Why are all these people so confident that they are not manifesting racism? There's just something about this man that doesn't seem right, that you don't care to examine exactly what it is, but you know it deep down in your gut somehow. Seriously. How do you know this is not racism? [italics in the original](Steve Benen)
Unlike Althouse apparently did, I didn't notice anything about him "that doesn't seem right" or feel any "instinctive revulsion." I just think his speech sucked.
Jon Swift, as so often, has the final word.
[W]hat really inspired me was the story he told about how people in leaky little boats tried to save the citizens of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina even though government bureaucrats tried to stop them. If the government had stayed out of New Orleans entirely and encouraged more people to use their boats or to make their own boats out of things around the house, more people would probably be alive today. And instead of waiting for inefficient government workers to fix the levies, ordinary New Orleans citizens could have patched them up using bubble gum and duct tape and good old American know-how....
[I]nstead of relying on the government to build magical magnetic levitation trains, the people of Las Vegas should be encouraged to bring some tools from their garages and build the train themselves, the way the Amish do. And while it's true that the magical levitation part might prove to be technologically difficult for the average Las Vegas citizen, if they all put their minds together and pray, I bet they would be able to levitate the trains. The power of prayer worked for Gov. Jindal when he and a few friends exorcised some demons and cured a woman of cancer back when he was in college so it could probably work for trains, too. And praying may also be the answer to our health care crisis.
And instead of having bureaucrats build roads and bridges why not let people build their own roads and bridges? With all of the companies laying off people and outsourcing jobs to Gov. Jindal's native country, there are plenty of people with time on their hands looking for something to do during the day. It would give people a sense of accomplishment and distract them from worrying about how they will pay the mortgage or pay for health care for their children.
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He's getting mau-maued by the usual libtards and some RINOs on a good speech substantively that could have been helped by elocution and stye points. Palin was charismatic, but not so hot on policy and also got nailed.
Face it, the "Repubs" [Juan & Nina?] punching out BobbyJ are useful idiots and the so-called Democrats Politburo Candidate Members.....
And Althouse is right, the Dems and Repubs are both racists.....[that was what she was hinting at, The things that made her "uncomfortable" are the Indian tics that made it so easy to condescend to "Slumdog" & give it Oscars.
Sadly No! is an out-and-out racist since Jindal made no mention of anyplace else but India. Like his "libtard" pals....
Posted by: daveinboca | February 26, 2009 at 05:00 PM
Well, daveinboca, you sure put us liberals in our place. Although I'm not sure what mau-maued means, it sure does sound like something us liberals would do.
I am duly chastized. Hmm, but I wonder at you, criticizing his "elocution and stye points." Rather harsh, don't you think?
Posted by: paulinbrandon | February 26, 2009 at 07:31 PM
Yes, daveinboca, but the fact that Althouse noticed the Indian tics, so-called, suggests that she's the racist, not me. Paulinbrandon duly notes that it wasn't the elocution, but the substance.
I think he's very attractive, but then I'm a southerner and I talk just like he does.
But his speech still sucked.
Posted by: DAMOZEL | February 27, 2009 at 02:03 PM
And he has apparently been caught in a lie about his story about Sheriff Henry Lee.
Of course, an ability to lie persuasuvely probably counts in his favor for conservatives.
Posted by: Charles | February 27, 2009 at 09:57 PM