Michael Gerson: The Jindal Phenomenon

To be honest, Bobby Jindal failed to convince me yesterday. Possibly because he pushed too hard on the button labeled, hey folks, I'm as easygoing as Obama, and so he lost on the way the substance of his message. His entrance, along the corridor, the way presidents do at the White House, was definitely mauvais gout. There is only one President at a time, and the confidence game cannot be played just by everyone.

Which doesn't mean too much, however. Mr. Jindal remains a serious contender. Here is what Michael Gerson says in today's W Post (I'm not as enthusiastic as Mr. Gerson seems to be, but that's another story:)

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal -- selected to deliver the Republicans' Fat Tuesday response to President Obama -- might also be voted the man least likely to let the good times roll. Slight, earnest, deeply religious and supremely wonkish, Jindal resembles neither his flamboyant predecessors as governor nor his reveling, 30-something contemporaries on Bourbon Street. Somehow the hall-monitoring, library-inhabiting, science-fair-winning class president has seized control of the Big Easy. And his coup has been an inspiration to policy geeks everywhere.

At a recent meeting of conservative activists, Jindal had little to say about his traditional social views or compelling personal story. Instead, he uncorked a fluent, substantive rush of policy proposals and achievements, covering workforce development, biodiesel refineries, quality assurance centers, digital media, Medicare parts C and D, and state waivers to the CMS (whatever that is).

Some have compared Jindal to Obama, but the new president has always been more attracted to platitudes than to policy. Rush Limbaugh has anointed Jindal the next Ronald Reagan. But Reagan enjoyed painting on a large ideological canvas. In person, Jindal's manner more closely resembles another recent president: Bill Clinton. Like Clinton (a fellow Rhodes scholar), Jindal has the ability to overwhelm any topic with facts and thoughtful arguments -- displaying a mastery of detail that encourages confidence. Both speak of complex policy issues with the world-changing intensity of a late-night dorm room discussion.

In recent days, Jindal has displayed another leadership quality: ideological balance. He is highly critical of the economic theory of the stimulus package and turned down $98 million in temporary unemployment assistance to his state -- benefits that would have mandated increased business taxes in Louisiana. But unlike some Republican governors who engaged in broad anti-government grandstanding, Jindal accepted transportation funding and other resources from the stimulus -- displaying a program-by-program discrimination that will serve him well in public office. Jindal manages to hold to principle while seeing the angles.

While Clintonian in manner, knowledge and political sophistication, Jindal is not ideologically malleable. His high-pressure Asian-immigrant background has clearly taught him not to blend in but to stand out. He has tended to join small, beleaguered minorities -- such as the College Republicans at Brown University. He converted to a traditionalist Catholicism, in a nation where anti-Catholicism has been called the last acceptable prejudice. Jindal, sometimes accused of excessive assimilation, has actually shown a restless, countercultural, intellectual independence.

But this has earned him some unexpected enthusiasm. In Louisiana, Jindal is the darling of evangelical and charismatic churches, where he often tells his conversion story. One Louisiana Republican official has commented, People think of Bobby Jindal as one of us. Consider that a moment. In some of the most conservative Protestant communities, in one of the most conservative states in America, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, a strong Catholic with parents from Punjab, is considered one of us.

This is a large political achievement. It is also an indication of what has been called the ecumenism of the trenches -- the remarkable alliance between evangelicals and Catholics on moral issues such as abortion and family values against an aggressive secularism. Two or three hundred years ago, the Protestant/Catholic divide remained a source of violence. Two or three decades ago, many conservative Protestant churches questioned whether Catholics were properly to be considered Christians. If Jindal runs for president in three or seven years, he will be widely viewed as an evangelical choice.

Ultimately, however, Jindal is a problem-solving wonk, fond of explaining 31-point policy plans (his state ethics reform proposal actually had 31 points). This can have disadvantages -- a lack of human connection and organizing vision. But this approach also has advantages. Jindal is a genuine policy innovator. His reforms, says Yuval Levin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, are the only constructive thing Republicans are doing on health care anywhere.

And Jindal's résumé, intellectual confidence and command of policy make him the anti-Palin. Fairly or unfairly, media and intellectual elites (including some conservative elites) regard Gov. Sarah Palin as an inhabitant of another cultural planet. Jindal, while also religious and conservative, speaks the language of the knowledge class and will not be easily caricatured or dismissed. To journalists, policy experts and Rhodes scholars, Jindal is also one of us.

At this point in the election cycle, no Republican can be considered more than the flavor of the month. But this is an appealing one.



(Zoon Politikon)

With Jindal at GOP's Helm, the Generational Shift Would Be Complete

(Photo: Charlie Neibergal / AP)

I found this photo in today's W Post: it shows Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana as he is touring, hands in pockets, a community damaged by flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Gov. Jindal came to Iowa to deliver a couple of speeches. His mere presence ignited talk about 2012.

Says Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, as Republicans, you have a real problem now with younger voters and immigrants. If you were going to central casting for a candidate to deal with all that, who do you have? Jindal. He is young, and he looks young. . . . He's a great communicator. And his record is that he's sharp and quick with policy.

Michael Leahy has a column in today's W. Post with a lot of information about Jindal, here is some:

Jindal is his own invention, in the mold of an Obama. Born in Louisiana as Piyush Jindal to highly educated immigrants from India, he decided as a young child to nickname himself Bobby, after his favorite character on the TV show The Brady Bunch. Raised as a Hindu, he converted to Catholicism while in college and later wrote a lengthy, intimate story that provided a window on his religious evolution, in a manner that fairly calls to mind Obama's books about his own grappling with issues of self-identity. Success at Brown University and later at Oxford University during his Rhodes years led to high-profile attention in the power corridors of Louisiana and Washington.


The question is not whether he'll be president, but when he'll be president, because he will be elected someday (Steve Schmidt).



(Zoon Politikon)

Would Bobby Jindal become the Vice of McCain?

The conventions for the Dems and GOP will come eventually and then will go, so by that time we'll know the vice of each of the two nominees. Everybody's speculating about Obama's vice (provided Obama will get the nomination, which is pretty sure, not yet absolutely sure), so, let's schmooze a little bit about GOP's vice. Possible vices to be attributed to John McCain: Mike, Joe, Hillary. Mike would bring the support of Chuck Norris, Joe would know when it's Sunni and when it's Shia, Hillary would answer the 3 AM call.

I'd have another suggestion: Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana. He is 37, son of Indian immigrants, and a maverick (so he would cope with the maverick number 1). To make it short: young, Indian, smart. What about that?


(Zoon Politikon)