Bobby JIndal is a human weather vane. He walks around with his index finger extended at all times to see if it’s time to change positions.The prevailing wind in the GOP right now seems to be gusting pragmatism:
Republican governors’ leader Bobby Jindal turned on his party’s national leadership on Wednesday, calling on the GOP to suggest alternative ideas for healthcare and immigration reform rather than simply defining itself as the “party of no”.
Amid signs of a growing backlash among Republican moderates since the failed government shutdown and the landslide re-election of centrist New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Jindal opened the annual conference of governors in Arizona with a stark warning to the Tea Party-dominated House of Representatives.
“We no longer want to outsource our brand management to the folks in DC,” said the governor of Louisiana. “Too often in Washington, we are defined as the party of no. Too often we’re defined by what we’re against. We need to do a better job as a party of defining what we are for.”
PBJ sounds more like a junior ad exec than a future President doesn’t he? His old slogan of no mo stupid party went over about as well as a dead rat in the punch bowl, so he’s trying to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and stop messing with Mr. In Between.
The reason for the new GOP wind patterns, of course, is all the hot air emanating from the MSM about Chris Christie’s big victory up in Joisey. The folks at Politico and elsewhere believe that somehow Gov. Pufferfish can bellow, bluster and drag his party to the center. Color me skeptical. Both Senator Walnuts and Willard Mittbot Romney were moderates who moved far right to placate their party. It was easy for Willard, because like PBJ, he believes in absolutely nothing whereas McCain at least believes in going to war whenever and wherever possible. Just call him Dr. Strangelove.
Back to my large eared and butt ugly Governor.PBJ recently “wrote” another piece for Poltico wherein he kinda, sorta said he might be running in 2016. Actually, he said “I don’t know,” which Jindalspeak means “yes, yes, yes, give it to me now.” (No wonder he gives the bozos at Tiger Beat on the Potomac a collective stiffy.) Since he’s term limited, he can no longer say “I have the job I want.” PBJ seems to be positioning himself to morph into a moderate if Christie falters as I expect him to do after yelling at one too many biblethumpers in Iowa.
I remain eternally skeptical about Jindal’s future candidacy, but he does have a shot at the other route to the Presidency. That route, of course, is the one taken by Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and Harry Truman: the Vice Presidency. If the GOP nominee is another Governor it won’t happen, but if it’s someone like Paul Ryan or a Senator, PBJ has a good chance to be on the ticket. He’s the sort of minority candidate the Republicans love: he’s one of them while looking like THE OTHER. It’s unlikely to help them all that much in the Indian-American community, most of whom are libruls, but it could make the GOP look more tolerant and inclusive to suburbanites.
That is all.