The American Spectator

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Jindal Bells

3.17.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 5)

Incidentally, in James Lucier's column, once again McCain's age is brought up. Apparently no one is to discuss Obama's race, but it seems every other day some mention is made in the media about McCain's age. By now everyone who is interested in politics knows that he is 71, so how about giving it a rest.
-- Lucille McClure
San Jose, California

I read Mr. Lucier's column with an overwhelming sense of dismay, and yet dismay is not near a strong enough word. There is not an iota of doubt in my mind that Gov. Jindal will be a superstar in the GOP, if he gets his due.

There is no doubt that he can handle a job considerably larger than the governor of Louisiana. I do not mean to denigrate Louisiana. I believe that he can handle a job bigger than governor of New York or California also. But please, is the GOP bench that thin? My heavens, the man was just installed in the Governor's office three months ago. Could we wait until he gets his office key before we move him out again?

So we team him with McCain and McCain loses. Now Jindal has a large loss on his record, and he returns to Louisiana as damaged goods and with the state Democrat forces strengthened against him. Geez, can't we see what kind of a record he can establish after the honeymoon from the Governor's race is over? How many times have we rushed a rising GOP star to the front of the bus before they were ready for prime time, only to see them flame out, never to be heard from again in any serious way. Let the man build his foundation. Trying to erect a structure without first building a foundation is a sure way to witness tragedy.

OK, so we team him with McCain and they win. We will now have four years, possibly eight, of him being totally subsumed by McCain's gigantic ego. Again I use the example of Alban Barkley or Harry Truman with FDR. And excuse me, but when was the last time that McCain played nice with anyone that he had total enmity for? And who was the last politician to seriously battle McCain on an issue that he did not have enmity for?

Jindal as Veep would be a minimum of four years of the biggest waste of a seriously talented politician that I have heard of in a very long time. Not only that, but I believe that Jindal is that rare political animal, a politician that stands by his true beliefs regardless of public opinion polls or political opposition.

Mr. Lucier, are you rushing to a fire sale with your lights blinking and siren wailing? Let's allow Gov. Jindal some time to ferment and age. Time mellows out the wine and makes it even more valuable. We might well need the likes of a Bobby Jindal to pick up the pieces of a seriously broken GOP in 2010 or 2012. Or failing that, to put together a GOP replacement party. Maybe we could call it the American Conservative Party, or the Save America First Party. We simply must quit sacrificing our future well being for considerations of the present moment. Take a few moments to really study history, and then a few more moments to plan for the future, beyond tomorrow or next week. Every problem cannot, nor should it be, solved in sixty minutes with time out for commercials.
-- Ken Shreve

McCain's CPAC speech did not impress; his primary "victory" speech did not impress; and his full hour on H&C last night certainly did not impress. However, if he picks Gov. Jindal as his second, I'll vote for the ticket in a VA minute.

Yes, I'm a recovering FredHead -- and yes, I do have a wide, long, and deep libertarian streak. I love the concept of limited government; and of course, I really love the concept of low taxes. If the former Naval officer sticks to his knitting and focuses only on the management of all things foreign, he'll have my unswerving loyalty. But here's the real keeper -- if he turns over all things domestic to the LA Gov, and signs those documents that require a Presidential signature only after they undergo a full and complete vetment by Mr. Jindal, then full-fledged conservatives, and those with a similar bent to mine (libertarian with a conservative skew), will definitely have something to crow about.

And it is about damn time!
-- Owen H. Carneal, Jr.
Yorktown, Virginia

As a classical liberal (i.e. conservative libertarian) I would change my mind and consider voting for McCain if he selected Bobby Jindal for veep -- but only if McCain would butt out of the way and let Bobby Jindal lead the charge in the battle of ideas and policy.

People say "support McCain, we can't risk a President Obama," but I don't know if we can risk another philosophically confused faux conservative presidency. It could be the death of the conservative brand; nobody under age 40 even knows what a conservative-principled GOP looks like, and McCain is not helping any more than Bush did. We're currently getting socialism on energy, Social Security, etc., but all the resulting problems are being blamed on the GOP and conservatism because political incompetents have made a sanctimonious fetish of "reaching across the aisle" instead of clearly criticizing the bad policies and the people promoting them.

Left to himself McCain would, in his utter philosophical confusion, lead the charge into a clueless Teddy Roosevelt progressivism. No thanks -- if I wanted national-purpose socialism (i.e. soft fascism) I'd vote for Barry or Hillary.

The only question is whether we can really afford to risk a spectacular hope like Bobby Jindal by chaining him to the philosophical and political failure that is the current GOP national leadership. Bobby Jindal should really be at the top of the ticket.
-- Eric Richter
Grand Rapids, Michigan

This is not the first time that Jindal has come up as a potential VP.

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