Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
JINDAL A TOUGH SELL ON A NATIONAL STAGE
Bobby Jindal had an uphill fight to begin with this past Tuesday evening when he was the Republican pick to give a response to the President’s State of the Union speech. He was thrown into the lion’s den to give reaction to comments of a popular president, just coming into office, with a major segment of the American public pulling for him and giving him high marks. No matter what Jindal might have said, he really could not, and did not gain any traction or score any substantive points.
Jindal was called on to mouth the national party line, and right now, that line is a big stumbling block for the GOP. They are dealing with a President whose popularity ratings stay above 60% in every major recent poll. Tuesday night, MSNBC tracked the reaction of both Obama voters and McCain voters in several focus groups around the country. Both sides were consistently and solidly positive throughout Obama’s speech. In fact, when the President talked about unfreezing credit markets and ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, McCain voters were stronger for the President that the Obama group. The Republicans are trying to mould an alternative to a President who, so far, seems to be right on with an acceptable message to a solid majority of the country, leaving Jindal little wiggle room to respond. Continue reading “Jim Brown on Bobby Jindal”