Don't Choose Me

It looks like CS will get his "wish" and Bobby Jindal will not be McCain's Vice-President nominee...the article linked here pushes Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as the leading candidate...we here at YASR have mentioned this before...

The Wrens -- Everyone Choose Sides
From The Meadowlands album.

Jindel

Holy Jeez...I wasn't expecting a Jindel love fest CS! If he doesn't end up getting indicted [like every good Louisiana politician eventually does Democrat or Republican...mainly Democrat] it would be interesting to see how the larger Republican party would respond to him in a leadership position. Assuming there still is a Republican party after November 2008.

In terms of America in general, his future success or failure will be directly related to how Obama does. Is racism really so weakened in America that we can have a black president? If the answer is yes, Jindel has a better chance than Jeb Bush of getting anywhere near the presidency.

I have to ask though...can it really be that your favorite politician gave himself a nickname [I didn't think that was allowed...people have to give YOU a nickname, not the other way around] after a character from The Brady Bunch!

McCain's Veep

As McCain picks his veep, there are three men that, if paired with McCain, would cause me not to vote for the good Senator:

1. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA)
2. Robert Gates, Sec of Defense
3. Gen. Robert Petraeus

My opposition is not because I dislike any of those men. It is because I have nothing but the highest amount of respect for all three and do not want any of them removed from their current positions.

Gates and Petraeus are relatively easy to explain. Any success we have had recently in Iraq is largely because of those two men. Had Bush had them in charge from the beginning, we wouldn't have had a "cakewalk" with Iraqis waving palm leaves as we came in, but we also wouldn't have had the Rumsfeld-Franks-Bremer bungling that got us where we are.

Bobby Jindal might be my favorite politician in America. He is the symbol of a new generation of conservatism. Look at these quotes.

Here is a summary: Putting the state's money where its mouth is on the job readiness of its citizens. Understanding that higher education is an investment in the state's economy and not something to be ridiculed and kicked in the shins. Promoting and expanding pre-K programs. Aggressively working to get more poor kids government health insurance. Using the centrality of state government to help residents maximize their health-care buying power. Treating elected officials just like other state employees when it comes to ethics training, and punishing them when they do wrong.

I look forward to the day that I can vote for Bobby Jindal for national office. But that is not 2008. Louisiana is at a crucial moment. Hurricane Katrina's effects are still being felt as are years of corrupt subpar leadership. JFK famously said that Washington DC was "a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm." Louisiana's politics have a Southern efficiency with a Chicago honesty. This state has produced colorful characters like Edwin Edwards and mediocrities like Kathleen Blanco. One of the reasons that the local, state and federal governments bungled Katrina so badly was the complete lack of political leadership in the state.

Bobby Jindal provides the ambition, brains and charisma to be the most important governor since Huey Long. Right now, it is just potential. But it is more potential than Louisiana has had since Long and comes at the perfect moment. I am not willing to take Bobby Jindal away from Louisiana so John McCain doesn't seem so old.

Jindal/Petraeus 2012 would be my greatest dream come true. I'd work for that ticket for free.

Veep

John McCain is hosting three possible Vice President candidates this weekend at his home in Arizona....here's the list:

1. Florida Governor Charlie Crist
2. Mitt Romney
3. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

If God is a Democrat, McCain will choose Bobby Jindal. It will effectively neutralize one of Obama's weak points in reaching some voters...a lack of easily explained foreign policy experience. These paragraphs from an article entitled "Who Is Bobby Jindal?" summarizes things nicely:

"But in an interesting development, the same quarters that have raised doubts about freshman Sen. Barack Obama's national security bona fides seem relatively unconcerned about Jindal's potential place on a ticket headed by a 71-year-old whose heath has been the subject of focus by the media. Similarly, given McCain's accusations regarding Obama's "inexperience," Jindal's short if well diversified resume has nevertheless failed to prove a stumbling block to speculation about the fast-tracking of his political future.

On the National Review's blog, The Corner, Yuval Levin wrote: "[Jindal has] more management and executive experience than Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John McCain can point to. The Democrats could hardly accuse him of a thin resume if they're running Obama." While that analysis could conceivably be run in reverse, as well, there is actually something besides armchair political analysis to consider when looking at Jindal."