I am wired to laugh at Republicans (on my kinder days), and that makes me an unreliable source for questions like, "How do you think Jindal did in the Republican response to Obama's speech last night?"
But watching him last night, I lost any concern about his being a Presidential candidate. Even the Faux News lineup apparently thought he was awful. One comment I read, that it was like watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, was pretty much on target, I think.
I was going to do a post on the whole thing, but Sherry at A Feather Adrift beat me to it. Okay, she's maybe a little over-the-top about Obama. But maybe not. Time will tell.
Update: Talking Points Memo gives you a taste of the whole thing in 100 seconds.
February 26 Update: It seems Bobby Jindal is another gift that keeps giving. To wit, Gail Collins' column this morning:
We will pass over Jindal’s delivery, which sounded a little like a junior high schooler’s entry into the Chamber of Commerce “I Speak for Fiscal Restraint” contest. The content was the thing: a message to the nation that the Republicans were not going to have anything important or useful to say about the current economic crisis [my emphasis, of course, but boy has she nailed that one!].
Absent any deep thoughts, the Republicans are going to complain about waste. The high point of Jindal’s address came when he laced into “wasteful spending” in the stimulus bill, and used as an example a $140 million appropriation for keeping an eye on the volcanoes in places like Alaska, where one is currently rumbling.
“Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.,” Jindal claimed.
I don’t know about you, but my reaction was: Wow, what a great stimulus plan. The most wasteful thing in it is volcano monitoring.
2 comments:
I was struck that the Republicans would send a person, or a "pre-existing condition", as he referred to himself at one point, who had the rhetorical skill of an 8th grader to follow Obama. I mean he loves getting up there and just talking, looked last night like he was going to dance. What was it that Jingles or whateverthehellhis name to do to follow that?
By 11PM Pacific, the "message" that Faux and others were carrying bore no resemblance to the speech--something about the fact that we know better than the government how to spend our own money, and want to be left alone a message one talking head opined was "beginning to resonate with the American people." What??? Is that what he said? I thought he was talking about the government response to Katrina, which for a Republican seemed a but oxtmoronic to begin with.
Hope those 20% who didn't like the Obama speech are ready to vote for him next time!
Gail Collins had the same thought about an 8th grader (see Feb 26 update). Oh, I wish they would just keep showing the Jindal speech over and over again. There's supposed to be an Obama channel somewhere on cable. How about a Jindal channel?
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