Bobby Jindal Announces for President. Does anyone care?

[Sam_Lowry]

@Rick_Kitchen

Bobby decided to hold a Twitter Q&A. Predictably, it did not go well.

Apparently it wasn’t part of his direct team, but a Super PAC. But still, a hilariously bad idea. Really I would never choose to hold a Twitter Q&A for almost any celebrity or politician, unless it was someone universally beloved like Tom Hanks, and even then I’d have to really consider it. They pretty much almost always go off the rails.

[Boyo_Jim]

@Sam_Lowry

Apparently it wasn’t part of his direct team, but a Super PAC. But still, a hilariously bad idea. Really I would never choose to hold a Twitter Q&A for almost any celebrity or politician, unless it was someone universally beloved like Tom Hanks, and even then I’d have to really consider it. They pretty much almost always go off the rails.

I wish Trump would do this. He would actually answer, to the amusement of us all.

[BrainGlutton]

@YogSosoth

What was he resting from? WTF?

Good question.

To his critics and to the majority of Louisianians, the answer is pretty obvious: Bobby Jindal is “rested” because he never showed up to do his job. He’s spent nearly half of the last two years outside of Louisiana. John Kennedy, the Republican state treasurer, claims that he hasn’t had a substantive conversation with Jindal since he was first elected, which seems almost negligent when one considers the shape of the state’s finances. Through his state campaign fund, Jindal has spent nearly $4 million with OnMessage, a D.C.-based political consultancy, and perhaps as a result, his name has appeared in the byline of more national editorials than any other presidential candidate. He’s been everywhere but where he was supposed to be.

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post met Bobby Jindal 12 years ago. “He was 32,” Cillizza writes. “And he was, literally, the single most accomplished and impressive young person I had ever met.” I don’t doubt that. Jindal stacked up more accomplishments in his first 32 years than most people could achieve in 32 lifetimes: Ivy League graduate, Rhodes scholar, secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals, president of the University of Louisiana, a healthcare policy adviser to the president of the United States, and a gubernatorial candidate. At 33, he was a congressman, and at 36, he became governor. So, what happened? Cillizza, I think, nails it (bold mine):

Jindal never becomes the serious contender that his team believes he will be, there will rightly be second-guessing of whether Jindal’s tendency to always be pushing to the next big achievement, which served him well for his first 30-plus years on earth, wound up as his ultimate weakness, politically speaking. Never able to simply occupy an office or a job without looking to see where the next rung on the ladder might be. Never realizing that sometimes the best way to gain experience is to simply, well, gain it.

This is precisely why, without even a hint of irony, Bobby Jindal is happy to gloat about being rested: He’s been waiting for the next big gig instead of working at the one he has now.

[YogSothoth]

What is it called when someone is good at something, but gets promoted to a level where he’s no longer good? Whatever that is, Jindal seems to be doing it to himself

[Leaper]

Peter Principle?

[YogSothoth]

That’s the one!

I’m sure Jindal is very good at some things, running a university or doing research or writing papers but he’s reached the limits of his abilities, or rather found the limits of where his pandering takes him. As far as being a governor goes, it sounds like he’s not even as good as Rick Perry.

[Nema98]

@Nars_Glinley

I believe that “tanned” was in response to #BobbyJindalIsSoWhite tag that was making the rounds a week ago.

He wishes he were white.

@YogSosoth

That’s the one!

I’m sure Jindal is very good at some things, running a university or doing research or writing papers but he’s reached the limits of his abilities, or rather found the limits of where his pandering takes him. As far as being a governor goes, it sounds like he’s not even as good as Rick Perry.

Ricky Perry witnessed job creation and growth as Governor, Jindal can’t say the same thing.

[DSeid]

FWIW he’s actually being rational and intelligent right now.

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana called for tougher gun laws in other states on Sunday, breaking his silence on the issue three days after a gunman with a history of mental illness and violence opened fire in a movie theater in the state’s fourth-largest city. …

… On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Mr. Jindal called for states to adopt laws similar to Louisiana’s that feed information about mental illness into a federal background check system for potential gun buyers.

“I think every state should strengthen their laws,” he said. “Every state should make sure this information is being reported in the background system. We need to make sure that background system is working. Absolutely, in this instance, this man never should have been able to buy a gun.” …

… In a series of messages on Twitter, the Westboro Baptist Church indicated that some of its members would picket the funerals. The ultraconservative church, which is based in Topeka, Kan., has gained notoriety for its staunch anti-gay stance and for a series of protests, including at the funerals of American military service members killed in war.

Mr. Houser had expressed admiration on Twitter for Westboro Baptist, which likened the theater shooting and recent ones at two military centers in Chattanooga, Tenn., and a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., to the wrath of God.

Mr. Jindal issued an executive order on Saturday directing the police to enforce state laws against protests disturbing the peace at funerals. On “Face the Nation,” he said Westboro protesters would face arrest if they tried to disrupt the funerals for the Lafayette victims.

“They shouldn’t try that in Louisiana,” he said. “We won’t abide by that here. Let these families grieve. Let them celebrate their daughters, their children, their spouses, their loved ones’ lives in peace. They better not try that nonsense here.”…

It is clearly not enough to offset his past stupid but danged if it is not a good first step.

[RickG]

@DSeid

FWIW he’s actually being rational and intelligent right now.
It is clearly not enough to offset his past stupid but danged if it is not a good first step.

I listened to that Face the Nation interview. I noticed that he couldn’t resist throwing in the words “there’s evil out there” in the same breath he was talking about enforcing gun restrictions on the mentally ill. I’m not sure he was even aware he said it–mentioning “evil” when talking about violence is reflexive language in US politics, though somewhat more pronounced in the conservative Christian world.

What he said about background checks seemed sensible in part–violent felons probably shouldn’t be allowed to buy guns (I’m not so sure about non-violent ones). On the other hand, equating mental illness with evil, and assuming that anyone who’s been involuntarily committed is ipso facto a danger to others (more likely, they’re a danger to themselves), is antiquated and irrational thinking.

Also, didn’t SCOTUS put funeral protests, however hateful, under the free speech category?

[Chimera]

@RickG

Also, didn’t SCOTUS put funeral protests, however hateful, under the free speech category?

I believe so. But of course, Westboro would have to be arrested, then sue, and follow it up as far as Louisiana decided to push it, knowing they’re going to lose at some level.

So all in all, just another way for Jindahl to dig his state a deeper hole.

[adaher]

Resurrecting this from page 2 of the Elections forum since Fivethirtyeight recently posted an article on why Jindal can still win Iowa

Bobby Jindal Could Still Win Iowa

I’m not sure Jindal benefits from Scott Walker’s recent exit from the Republican race, exactly, but I do think the Louisiana governor is a sleeper pick to win the Iowa caucuses.1

Jindal fits the Christian conservative mold of the last two caucus winners, and he’s plainly playing for those voters; his campaign website has sections devoted to “pro-life,” “radical Islam” and “religious liberty.” Earlier this year, he screened the controversial videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue donations on a loop outside the governor’s mansion in Louisiana.

The case against Jindal: He has only 3 percent in the Real Clear Politics average of Iowa polls. And some social conservatives have fallen flat in Iowa — Gary Bauer in 2000 and Michele Bachmann in 2012, for example. There’s also a lot of competition for the religious vote this year. In our graphical representation of the factions that make up the GOP field — what we call the five-ring circus — Jindal shares that space with Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Huckabee and Santorum.

But again, there’s that history of late surges. There’s also the fact that very conservative candidates have tended to outperform even their final polling averages.

And beneath the headline horse-race numbers, Jindal is making noise. His net favorability rating (favorable minus unfavorable) among Iowa Republicans is fourth-best in the GOP field, according to an average of the three live-interview polls conducted over the last month (by the Des Moines Register, Loras College and Quinnipiac University).

[Onomatopoeia]

Jindal is not winning Iowa or anything else. You can bank on that.

He is desperately hoping that if he stays in the race long enough he’ll be the last man standing against Trump, and delusionally he believes he can beat Trump.

[ElvisL1ves]

That first part is not crazy. Santorum became the last non-Romney the last time merely by not quitting. Not that it did him much good, though.

[Ukulele_Ike]

I’ve got a good feeling about this! He’s got the momentum! I believe he can go all the way!

I’ve got Jindal Fever!!!

[Boyo_Jim]

@Ukulele_Ike

I’ve got a good feeling about this! He’s got the momentum! I believe he can go all the way!

I’ve got Jindal Fever!!!

Clearly it makes you hallucinate.

[iiandyiiii]

I think Jindal has no chance, but I’d love to be wrong.

[Onomatopoeia]

@iiandyiiii

I think Jindal has no chance, but I’d love to be wrong.

Why in the world would you want to be wrong about that? You’re not wrong, but really, why would you want to be?

Jindal is one of the least qualified candidates for president in this cycle or any other in History. The man has helped to run his own state into the ground, placing religion and other nonsensical ideologies above practicality and data.

[wonky]

@Onomatopoeia

Why in the world would you want to be wrong about that? You’re not wrong, but really, why would you want to be?

iiandyiiii is pro-Republicans-nominating-doofuses.

I, on the other hand, would rather not risk a doofus, so I’m pulling for… um… I’ll get back to you.

(Okay, fine. A couple aren’t complete doofuses. But all are doofus-adjacent.)

[iiandyiiii]

@Onomatopoeia

Why in the world would you want to be wrong about that? You’re not wrong, but really, why would you want to be?

Jindal is one of the least qualified candidates for president in this cycle or any other in History. The man has helped to run his own state into the ground, placing religion and other nonsensical ideologies above practicality and data.

jsgoddess answered for me. My home state is Louisiana (though I haven’t lived there for almost 15 years), but I’m well aware through friends of Jindal’s terribleness.

I want the Democrats to win, so I want the Republicans to nominate the worst possible (in terms of electability) candidate. I think Jindal is one of the worst possible candidates.

[Ukulele_Ike]

He’s ready for it, baby! All he needs is a little piyush in the polls.