DAVID BROOKS: Uh, not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I oppose the stimulus because I thought it was poorly drafted. But to come up at this moment in history with a stale “government is the problem,” “we can’t trust the federal government” – it’s just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic right now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but that idea that we’re just gonna – that government is going to have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that – In a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say “government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending,” it’s just a form of nihilism. It’s just not where the country is, it’s not where the future of the country is. There’s an intra-Republican debate. Some people say the Republican Party lost its way because they got too moderate. Some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and so he’s making that case. I think it’s insane, and I just think it’s a disaster for the party. I just think it’s unfortunate right now.
I’m sure Brooks criticizes Jindal not because Brooks has actual convictions, but because he has a pathological need to seem reasonable.
Comrade Stuck
In this case I think Brooks, like anyone with more than 2 brain cells, recognizes a shit sandwich when he sees one.
Mnemosyne
Yes, I’m reposting from the thread below. So sue me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxHoWEdcbcM
Watch Chris Matthews in the lower right hand corner—he has his head buried in his hands after Jindal’s speech. He looks like someone just shot his dog.
Ninerdave
Crap posted this in the other thread instead of this one. Apologies for the repost:
Obama vs. the GOP.
A metaphor via failblog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYckGMNknQw
Conservatively Liberal
Ouch, what a painful assessment. Even a few commenters at RedState are saying that Jindal failed. While that may sound like good reasoning at first, they quickly follow up with ‘gimme Palin in 2012’.
Straws. That is all they have left to grasp at.
John Cole
I won’t be convinced Obama did a good job tonight until Halperin calls his speech a disaster and says it is good news for the GOP.
Comrade Jake
Sorry to repost, but Nate Silver’s take on this can’t be beat IMO:
It’s almost like Jindal decided he has absolutely no interest in running for POTUS in 2012.
DougJ
He could have just been gathering himself, coming down from a diet coke high.
valdivia
I just heard Michelle Bernard give a bs defense of jindal on Tweety. "Jinda is an immigrant and immigrants don’t like govt and as a person of color the lesson of katrina is that the govt cannot save you so better rely on yourself". Just blows the mind the s*** that comes out of their mouths….
sgwhiteinfla
Uhmm has David Brooks not learned how to read a fucking poll re the stimulus bill? Jeebus. And this guy is supposed to be a conservative "intellectual". I would hate to see a conservative dumbass. Oh wait I think we just saw one tonight after President Obama’s speech…
T Paine
Jesus, did someone leave this Jindal-Juice sitting out overnight? It’s RANCID.
Comrade Stuck
@Mnemosyne:
Maddow impression of Jindal speech- a bleh a bah a duh
She says it all:)
John Cole
Also, has someone pointed out to Bobby Jindal that the government has spent hundreds of billions rebuilding Louisiana, which is hardly what those of us out here in socialist US of A call rugged individualism. Has that been mentioned by anyone?
Sorry, I got tired of Jindal half way through and started watching Heroes season 2 on DVD. Not sure which is worse yet.
sgwhiteinfla
valdivia
First of all Michelle Bernard is a fucking wingnut but every time she comes on hardball they just announce she is president of the "independent" womens council which is a wingnut outfit. She sounded like such a dumbass because the government failed during Katrina not because government was bad but because we had a bunch of idiots RUNNING the govt. Joan Walsh kicked her ass. And by the way the government sure has been dropping off truck loads of money to LA since Katrina and funny thing about that, Jindal was the one who coauthored the bill AUTHORIZING that "socialist spending". Who woulda thunk it?
TheHatOnMyCat
Why does anyone think Jindal is a "promising politician?"
The man walks funny, he talks funny, he looks funny. He says ludicrous things that leave people laughing or slack-jawed.
He talks like an idiot. He called upon memories of Katrina to illustrate why we should trust the GOP!
Brooks is incapable of being honest. Surely even he in his desperately desperate desperation could see that Jindal is not the future …. of anything.
Ninerdave
@Mnemosyne:
I’m pretty sure it was also Chris who exasperatedly said "Oh GAWD" when Jindal strolled out from behind the door to give his speech, such that it was.
TheHatOnMyCat
@valdivia: Michelle is a fraud, a complete moron. She is a young, black and beautiful version of David Broder.
valdivia
@TheHatOnMyCat:
because he is a non white republican?
Ninerdave
@John Cole:
BTD gave it a B- does that count?
Cat Lady
Nate Silver FTW.
Comrade Stuck
Watching that Hardball clip shows the mood I’d expect when receiving news that Russia had launched an all out nuclear attack on the US. Especially Tweety’s expression.
Ninerdave
More humor on Rachel’s show tonight.
When talking about how the GOP got to Jindal, they show Palin walking up on stage to speak at a rally. A sign beside her in a hand drawn clown font says "Got A Brain?"
DougJ
Who is BTD?
Mike in NC
Fuck your party. Flush it down the toilet along with Joe the Brownshirt, farting for the anti-American Dream.
Comrade Jake
Think Progress has a mashup of the Jindal show followed by the Fox News panel response. It’s highly entertaining.
Mnemosyne
Because Barack Obama and Bobby Jindal are both brown.
No, seriously. Republicans really think the only reason people voted for Obama is because he’s black, so all they have to do it shove any brown or black Republican in front of the camera and they’ll get the same response.
Comrade Stuck
@DougJ:
Big tent democrat I’d guess
valdivia
@TheHatOnMyCat:
agreed but it still made me want to destroy the tv so so vapid.
Walker
@DougJ:
I assume Big Tent Democrat, everyone’s favorite PUMA at TalkLeft.
Comrade Jake
@TheHatOnMyCat:
Look at who they ran out there for VP in 2008. The bar is not set very high with these folks.
Seitz
Maybe I’m crazy, but seeing as how about 3.5 million people combined live in Anchorage and Seattle, cities which are actually somewhat threatened by volcanoes, monitoring them seems like kind of a good idea.
And what’s with the "something called…" crap? It’s called volcano monitoring because it consists of monitoring volcanoes. It’s not that difficult to understand.
DougJ
I agree that Jindal is a promising politician. He’s a Republican who isn’t a moron. That was enough to make Mitt “promising”, why not Jindal?
This is a party that may have Joe the Plumber on its ticket in 2012. You’ve got to take promise as it comes.
Ninerdave
@Walker:
That’d be he.
TheHatOnMyCat
Sorry, you are assuming facts not in evidence.
He talks like a moron. Oddly, that makes me think … he’s a moron.
Okay, I’m weird.
valdivia
I love how the conservatives are trying to make excuses for Jindal. This was Epic Fail, so fun.
DougJ
Come on, he was a Rhodes scholar. I’m not saying I love the guy but there’s prima facie evidence that he’s smarter than Sarah Palin and Eric Cantor.
sgwhiteinfla
DougJ
Prove Jindal isn’t a moron. I am still waiting for someone to explain why this guy is "promising" in a tangible way other than the fact that he knows evidently how to get elected. But then again so did George Bush.
Ninerdave
@Comrade Jake:
Oh that was brilliant.
Shorter Brit Hume: Jindal sucked because Obama’s a better speaker. It’s unfair to put him after Obama.
Comrade Stuck
@Ninerdave:
Yesterday, he had a thread titled Obama in Command and was the most glowing he had ever spoke of Obama. Needless to say his PUMA minion commenters were not impressed. So maybe the B- blah blah it was Ok is him trying to smooth the ruffled feathers of the Talkleft natives.
valdivia
@DougJ:
know someone who went to school with him. he was described to me as a total dullard.
Comrade Jake
Oh man, BTD is so not worthy of any attention. The guy was the ultimate tool during the primaries.
TheHatOnMyCat
Okay, well he does a great imitation of a moron.
Anybody who participates in an exorcism is a moron.
Anybody who invokes Katrina to sell trust in the GOP is a moron.
Anybody who says gumnt and prsdint is a moron.
Anybody who thinks Katrina proves that government should not be something we can rely on has no grasp of the issue.
As the sheriff said to the train robbers in The Gray Fox: I must take you for the robbers.
I must take him for a moron.
Ninerdave
@DougJ:
Seriously? Really, this is not snark when I say, I’m actually shocked. I would have never guessed.
While I realized that not every one can come on camera and wow the audience a la Obama, I’d think being a Rhodes scholar, he’d look at what he has to read and think. Wow, that’s horrible. I don’t want to look like a douche, can we write something meaningful?
Seriously, if this what Oxford is churning out on their scholarships, they might want to tighten their standards a bit.
Mark S.
I doubt he’s a moron, but to be a Republican today means you have to check your brains at the door and adopt a philosophy that is half Christian fundamentalist and half Ayn Rand. No one looks smart spouting those talking points.
Ninerdave
@Comrade Jake:
Oh I know he’s a complete douche nozzle. I don’t read talk left anymore just because of him but I saw his reaction post as a "featured post" on Memeorandum and it cracked me up.
Brian J
Jindal may be an intelligent,educated man, but that didn’t prevent him from giving a hacktacular response. People seem to be confusing a poor performance with limited intellectual capability, seen in many current Republicans.
Ninerdave
@Brian J:
Given the modern GOP can you blame them?
GSD
Jindalpalooza 2009!
-GSD
DougJ
Yes, he really was a Rhodes scholar.
I think he must be a pretty fucked up person to have participated in that exorcism though.
sgwhiteinfla
BrianJ
No I am talking about his reign as Governor of Louisianna. To her credit even Sarah Palin knew not to bank on petro dollars when the price was sky high without setting some money aside. Jindal on the other hand initiated huge tax cuts banking on those petro dollars and now his state is in the hole. What brilliant has he done in his career other than getting elected?
Rome Again
@DougJ:
Nobody of any significant importance. ;)
(a/k/a – Kos’ ex-BFF)
TheHatOnMyCat
@Rome Again: Oh, he is THAT Armando.
Stupid me, I never made that connection.
Thanks for the tip.
Ninerdave
@sgwhiteinfla:
Well credit where it’s due: a Rhodes scholarship is pretty impressive.
TheHatOnMyCat
Then Bobby must be the exception that proves the rule. How would anybody take great brains and education and apply them to being a Republican shill?
sgwhiteinfla
Is a Rhodes Scholarship a part of his career? I mean got damn our President was a Harvard Law grad and all this campaign season we heard about how that didn’t amount to shit. Its nice to put on a resume no doubt but what has he DONE?
Rome Again
@TheHatOnMyCat:
You didn’t know that? I’m amazed. Wow, we really should spend more time communicating, I can teach you so much. ;)
Brian J
@sgwhiteinfla:
That’s fair because that’s about managerial competence.
priscianus jr
This is one of the few moments in history where I acrtually agree with David Brooks.
JenJen
@John Cole: Re: Halperin, John, unfortunately, I think we’re screwed.
JGabriel
DougJ:
To sum up: BTD = Big Tent Democrat of Talkleft = formerly Armando of DKos.
.
paul in kirkland
In all seriousness, all that finding out that he’s a Rhodes Scholar does is take the luster off of Rhodes Scholars.
On the other hand, I think we as a society tend to conflate intellect with wisdom and it’s killing us.
Many of the people we saw in that chamber are intelligent, but unfortunately a large percentage of them aren’t very wise.
I highly recommend this talk if you can spare 20min. And if you can’t, you might want to make the time.
Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom.
JenJen
@valdivia: Indeed. I particularly enjoyed her bizarre argument that Jindal and Obama are so different, you know, because Jindal is the son of immigrants.
Uhhhhmmmmmm….
Slothrop
Tonight reminded me of why I supported him in the primary.
Fired Up! Ready to Go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHfbKTiUH8U
Andy K
I don’t know if this will be considered the viral video that killed Jindal’s presidential aspirations or just one of the nails in the coffin, but it’s pretty funny.
(Pardon me if it’s been posted on the site already.)
Delia
Here’s the thing. He may have been smart at one time. But you act dumb long enough for whatever reason and sooner or later you actually become dumb. If Jindal’s sold his brains for a load of hack Republican talking points, then he doesn’t have his brains anymore. And tonight it showed. I expect that eventually the goopers will learn that they can’t attract more than their basic 25% of the population with this line and they may be willing to go out and see if people like Crist, Huntsman, and Schwarzenegger are still willing to talk to them. Until then, they’ll just have to settle for making people dumb.
ChrisA
You go with the promise that you have not the promise that you wish you had. (D. Rumsfeld ca 2003)
Ninerdave
@Andy K:
I’m just amazed at how quickly people pump this shit out anymore.
It did remind me of something that made me gafaw when he said it.
"…it includes $300 mil dollars to buy new cars for the government"
…and?
Yeah dumbshit, that is going to keep people working. When the economy is shedding jobs like Tunch near a furinator, this is a Good Thing ™.
Apparently to the GOP, the only stimulating spending is no-bid contracts to people working in Iraq.
Tom
Remember when McCain gave his lime green speech? Jindal’s was almost that good.
Andy K
@Ninerdave:
Good point, but my favorite groaner line is "instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the e-RUP-shun of spending in Washington, D.C."
I haven’t read the stimulus package too closely, but I’ve gotta believe that some of that money for monitoring volcanic activity is meant to study the feasibility of harnessing the thermal energy in order to power that levitating train.
Ninerdave
@paul in kirkland:
No I’d highly disagree with that (contradicting earlier statements)
I think they are very wise in that they’ve kept their jobs by telling their constituencies (holy shit I spelled that right) what they want to hear and In the case of the house, both parties have cut deals to ensure survival.
No. We as a nation let this happen. We keep electing these pandering fucks. It’s obvious in the "all of congress is fucked up but my guys" effect. If you are an incumbent, you have little if no chance of loosing unless you do something really, really stupid.
This dovetails into one of my pet-peeves. Pointing out the media’s foibles. Each side, dem or wingnut thinks the news media is against them. You know what it’s true. They are against both because news has become entertainment. It’s no longer a public service (if it ever was and I only have 38 years to judge from…well 26 as I started following politics in front of my 18th b-day). It’s he said, she said, where’s the next "–gate" scandal. Scandals, like sex sells. Asking the mainstream media to change is silly and pointless.
We now, have access to a wealth of information and reporting. we are not limited to the big three or the cable nets for our news. Yet most people don’t care to go beyond what we see on TV because we are too lazy. America…is lazy. They’d rather watch American Idol than pay attention to what our government is doing. We don’t seek out information aside from American Idol bios. We, as a public don’t care, except when it comes to out pet issue…maybe. Even then we look to people, blogs and commenters who re-enforce our world view.
Therein lies the problem, the wealth of information we have is vast, yet it’s all too easy to just sit inside our cozy world and read pieces that re-enforce our worldview. Think that can’t happen to the progressives? HA! Look what happened to the Rush-heads
Don’t look to the traditional media to solve our problems. They exist anymore to sell ads. The politicians exist to get re-elected. You however can stop being lazy.
paul in kirkland
@Ninerdave:
I meant "wise" in the sense of doing the right thing where "the right thing" didn’t solely mean "get re-elected".
I do agree with your point, and I think the government is perfectly happy to let everyone watch American Idol while they get all the perks and free medical.
I don’t know that having everyone stop watching TV and have them start reading things that go against their worldview would necessarily help, but I suppose we could do worse. I just can’t subject myself to the right wingers; it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.
chopper
jesus, that speech was so bad, my 8-week-old has been up all night. the stupid, its driving her insane.
Rome Again
Well, I just spent some time reading FReeper responses to Jindal. Comedy gold, I tell ya. They know they are screwed. They are totally embarrassed at their spokesperson’s performance.
Bwahahahahahahahahaha!
That was the best hour I have spent lately. ;)
Mark S.
Ouch!
mannemalon
@Rome Again:
link(s)?
PC
Jindal is good, but he’s no Tim Kaine.
Ninerdave
@paul in kirkland:
I suppose I could have been more clear in my admittedly tl;dr post. I’m not suggesting that progressives go out and read RedState or Malkin or that wingnuts read Kos. Nor am I saying that people should give up on junk-food TV. Hell I tivo Maurey and most of the MSNBC line up. It’s entertainment.
What I am saying is that for America to continue working we need to be active and educate ourselves. To do that we need to look beyond our comfort zone.
There is a wealth of information out there now-a-days. From a progressive stand point there are some sane blogs out there that aren’t, well wingnutty. Cole is one (although we seemed to have converted him :) ), Larison is another, and I’ve been an avid reader of AmConMag for a while. Those are the obvious two.
What I’m really saying is that it’s work to be an informed voter. You need to move beyond party, tv and blogs that re-enforce your world view to truly informed voter. Yet that’s our job as citizens. I’ll grant you that I don’t know that we were ever up for the job :)
AnneLaurie
Assumes facts not in evidence. Willard "Mitt" Romney was considered promising because he’d used his "All-American good looks" and limitless personal ambition to turn his inherited millions into multi-millions. His success in acting as a figurehead greasing the way for his less-whitebread MBA classmates to suck the tithe dollars from Willard’s co-religionists got him a job grandstanding at the Olympics in Mormon-land, and his passion for the cameras during the Olympics got him the Massachusetts governorship when the Masshole Democrats decided they’d rather let the Rethugs win than catch girl cooties from their own nominee. Romney’s presidential campaign was a laff-a-minute sideshow, and if the national Republican party had any self-respect left, they’d blow up Mitt’s compound at Lake Winnepasaukee before he could embarrass them again.
Jindal is the Republican flavor-of-the-month, as many here have said, because the Rethugs believe Obama won on his skin color and there aren’t all that many non-white Republicans willing to mouth the party line on national TV. He’s not "attractive" in the preferred Republican Will-Ferrell-Ron-Burgundy way, and his performance tonight seems to indicate that he can’t make up in charisma what he lacks in experience. Unless Louisiana discovers an easy method for using kudzu to replace petroleum within the next 12 months, by 2010 Jindal will be "old news" and by 2012 he’ll be an answer in the latest version of Trivial Pursuit: Politics.
JGabriel
From Free Republic (via GOS)
I wonder if it will ever occur to GOPers that there’s something a bit quixotic, maybe, about their attacks on windmills?
.
Elroy's Lunch
@AnneLaurie
FTW
Chaos
If Jindal’s the future of the GOP, they best have mad camping skills. They’ll need them for all that time in the wilderness.
JL
Jindal’s speech made me forget the dental work that I had done. (root canal) It was difficult to focus on his words because his delivery was so poor. Nate Silver was being kind in saying that he appealed to 4th graders.
JL
lol, Rather than showing a quote from Jindal, Matt Lauer is reading a quote.
Markers Make
Jindal would have been more effective if he had just come out and read My Pet Goat
Conservatively Liberal
It just hit me; Jindal sounds like Mr. Rogers. The way he was talking sounded just like Mr. Rogers talking to children on his old PBS show, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
All he needed to do to complete the picture was take off his sweater and slip on his sneakers…lol!
Robert Johnston
Good grades and a good personal story are completely compatible with being a moron. I’m sure Jindal is a very hard worker, and he certainly can regurgitate talking points, and that’s all that’s really needed to get the grades to be a Rhodes scholar.
Jindal has also shown himself to be a lunatic who not only performs exorcisms but publishes articles confessing to kidnapping, false imprisonment, and battery as part of performing exorcisms–why he isn’t rotting in jail for that is a bit of a mystery. Jindal has shown himself to have a Palinesque grasp of policy. Jindal has proven that he just doesn’t understand that our economy is on the verge of serious meltdown and that there’s an actual crisis going on. Jindal is, in the end, a Republican, and a particularly insane one at that, and it is simply impossible for intelligent people to be Republicans in good faith these days.
Jindal is a moron.
TR
Check out the video in #63.
Robert Johnston
Note that Silver didn’t say that fourth graders would actually find Jindal’s appeal to them appealing. Jindal looked like he tried to speak to an audience of fourth graders, but he failed.
In the end Jindal really was speaking only to the whackaloon Republican donor base. Frankly, I think he failed there as well. Even Republican reaction to Jindal’s "response" has been mixed at best, and Jindal’s no doubt hurt his chances at political advancement on the national stage.
MikeJ
"Something called volcano monitoring…"
http://bp0.blogger.com/_DaH_PmLJHM0/R6-IWr_x2CI/AAAAAAAAAI0/Sek9jQIRDCE/s1600-h/Seattle_LakeUnion_MtRainier_25jun2000_01tfk.jpg
And as seitz pointed out, Anchorage has a volcanos. One is a code orange for aviation, one is code yellow. Which points out another hazard. If a jet flies through the volcanic ash from an erupting volcano, chances are it will lose it’s engines. Which means we need to monitor volcanos that aren’t necessarily any where near population centers too.
Zzyzx
So, I have a new theory this morning. Jindal’s speech was intentionally bad in order to distract from how good Obama’s was, like naming Palin as your VP pick the day after the convention speech.
That’s the only thing that makes sense.
…it’s that or bitch once again about how dumb it is to hear someone from a hurricane prone state mock volcano monitoring…
Tattoosydney
@Rome Again:
KLo is reduced to quoting delusional readers emails:
You can’t mock crap like that.
MikeJ
Who exactly do the wingnuts think the government is? The French?
Zzyzx
@MikeJ: I don’t know how much you know about Rainier, but Seattle would probably recover just fine from an eruption, but Tacoma and a lot of smaller towns… not so good. I-5, for that matter, would likely to be covered with about 10 feet of mud meaning that there would be no way out except over the I-90 pass, and if this happened during winter, that might not be a safe drive…
…but hey, don’t monitor volcanoes because that sounds funny…
Ned R.
For second graders, then.
Tattoosydney
@MikeJ:
Socialists? Check.
Surrender monkeys? Check.
Speak language that most 2nd graders (and therefore 22%ers) can’t speak? Check.
Yep. Current government = French.
MikeJ
zzyzx, I’m a fan of the glass museum, but the Thea Foss waterway isn’t as photogenic as Lake Union. Wikipedia has a nice map of lahar projections:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mount-rainier-lahar-lavaflow-pyroclasticflow-hazardmap.jpg
When I first moved up here I was amazed that Rainer was 50 miles away and still looked that fucking big.
Tattoosydney
Bugger, I hate it when I forget and type the trademarked name of the erection pill of moderation death…
@MikeJ:
Soc**lists? Check.
Surrender monkeys? Check.
Speak language that most 2nd graders (and therefore 22%ers) can’t speak? Check.
Yep. Current government = French.
Keith
What’s the over/under on Bobby Jindal guest-starring on "30 Rock" in a desperate attempt to rehab his reputation by showing that he can laugh at himself?
Rommie
Fred Rogers and Ronald Reagan both mentioned in comparison to Bobby Jindal is like Elvis and the Beatles both mentioned in comparison to Roseanne Barr. Those are the kind of insults that start Thunderdome matches.
El Cid
Right, David Brooks, but more importantly, that is the essence of the modern conservative movement — nihilism, reactionism, hawkery, and theft.
That’s it.
There’s no Burkean bullshit behind your conservative movement. This is who they are. It’s not an exception. They’re more than happy to let the country fall to sh*t if it helps them stir up the kinds of resentment that help them steal more for their buddies and blow up more brown people.
Plantsmantx
"I just heard Michelle Bernard give a bs defense of jindal on Tweety. "Jinda is an immigrant and immigrants don’t like govt and as a person of color the lesson of katrina is that the govt cannot save you so better rely on yourself". Just blows the mind the s*** that comes out of their mouths…."
Not only was it BS, but she shamelessly used and and trashed the memories of the people who died in Katrina.
Dennis-SGMM
Hey Brooks! Get with it! Michael Gerson thinks Jindal is sparkleworthy:
JL
Suppose you are a comedy writer, do you compare Jindal to Opie, Kenneth the Page or Mr. Rogers?
Josh Hueco
I thought the reason all those Mezkin invaders were coming to America was to get them some welfare checks.
TR
Kenneth is on the NBC payroll already. I’d bet real money they’re already writing a sketch either using the actor, or casting Jindal as the page.
valdivia
@Robert Johnston:
not to jump back on the Jindal is a moron bit but: yes. As i stated above I have a friend who went to college with Jindal. The word he keeps using is dull. The guy apparently was always very hard working (therefore the good grades) but lacked imagination and depth was narrow minded and extremely un-bright (yep made that up because it describes him better than dullard which i had already used).
ksmiami
Late to the game, but thanks to all you BJers who allow me to miss speeches (I hate watching – too antsy) because I can count on brutally honest and funny truth in reactions. Obama rocked, Jindal and the crazy town people sucked, got it –
Thanks and cheers
georgia pig
Jindal is like most ‘rising stars,’ he fades with exposure to sunlight. Remember the debuts of a lot of these stars, e.g., Kaine, Sibelius, etc. They’re usually underwhelming. Jindal’s success is more a measure of Louisiana’s problems than his talent. By contrast with their past pols, he’s comes across as not being completely incompetent and corrupt. In Louisiana, that’s a big step, elsewhere, not such a big deal.
In contrast, Obama is a singular, once-a-generation talent. The Repubs haven’t tumbled to the fact that his talent was refined by his unique background, but is not defined by it. All they can offer up is cheap knockoffs, resumes without underlying substance, like Jindal or Michael Steele. You also have to wonder whether a "person of color" could ever pull off themes of the current republican ideology. For example, the only really politically viable african american republican I can think of is Colin Powell, and he wouldn’t be caught dead making the speech that Jindal delivered.
valdivia
@Dennis-SGMM:
Overwhelm with facts? Huh? I was overwhelmed last night but it was with Teh Stupid not anything else. Gerson must have written this before the speech. Right?
Any over/under when the conservatives will recover from the shock and begin saying how great he was and that only ‘elitists’ would think he wasn’t great? (a la Palin after just introduced)
TheFountainHead
I guess Jindal was worse than I thought. I thought he was "Meh" but certainly not in Palin territory. Then I come in to work and even the most wingnutty of Republicans in my office are visibly angry at how bad he was. As one of them put it, "When he started to give the Sesame Street version of African American history, I almost threw my beer at the TV."
cosanostradamus
.
Everyone in Bobby Jindal’s family works for the government he hates so much.
.
Bobby Jindal is Sexy
I saw not only Starbursts, but Skittles! Then I fell into an orgasmic heap onto the floor.
Dennis-SGMM
This afternoon at the latest. If Gerson, himself a speech writer, can sell himself on Jindal then the rest of the wingers will be on him like flies on shit.
valdivia
@Dennis-SGMM:
yep i too expect it to change to ‘he is The great’ soon. let’s see how long it takes them.
Dennis-SGMM
@valdivia:
He’s the Real Thing – not just a silver-tongued devil, also.
Skepticat
"Jindal is an immigrant…."
That would be nice, as he’d be ineligible to run for president, but I believe it’s his parents who immigrated.
Why isn’t anyone making more mention of the fact that early on he used the fantasy train reference? That’s proof that either he’s an unapologetic liar (okay, he’s Republican, that’s redundant) or not smart enough to know what’s really in the bill. This is a petard on which he ought to be hoisted.
Bob In Pacifica
Big Tent Democrat. I was banned from TalkLeft, presumably by him, because I pointed out that Clinton did a 180 on the Michigan primary. At the time, that was a matter of faith there, that Hillary was was pure as the driven snow on that primary and that Obama was an anti-democratic creep who was trying to crush the voice of the people in Michigan. Questioning Hillary at TalkLeft was verboten. I wrote to ask why I was banned, never got a response, so I wrote off the blog. Too bad. Jeralyn occasionally had interesting columns on legal issues, but the requirement for political correctness (meaning not criticizing Hillary) killed TL for me.
BTD has struck me as a blowhard with little insight. Insular.
valdivia
@Dennis-SGMM:
LOL.
Bob In Pacifica
The problem with the Republicans’ anti-government stance is that all their examples of how government doesn’t work are examples of Republican incompetence and criminality. To offer Katrina as an example is almost a self-parody.
The lesson Americans are learning is that politicians who don’t think that government works are incapable of running governments.
Suddenly the best option for a Republican is to become Democrat-lite. What did they used to call this? A paradigm shift. But most Republican office-holders are an evolutionary strain that’s even farther to the right. The Neanderthal Repubs in Cali are totally out of touch with reality. Eventually even the reactionaries in the hills will have to face reality and then maybe the Dems can bifurcate into a Labor or Green Party on the left and a less progressive Dem party to the right of the new center.
Conservatively Liberal
@TR:
Thanks! That is f’ing funny! I guess I wasn’t the only one to think he sounded like Mr. Rogers.
If the foo shits, wear it. ;)
Mike in NC
No, the East Germans. Seriously, many years ago when I lived in NoVA the GOP candidate for governor of Maryland (Ellen Sauerbrey, I believe was her name and thank God she lost) went on this whole rant about having visited East Germany once and that convinced her forever that all governments were bad. They really are that batshit insane.
Bobby Skittles Jindal
If repubes in government think Government is so horrible and want to drown it in the bathtub, why are they *in* government? They want to drown themselves in the bathtub?
Comrade Darkness
Shorter Jindal: Hi! I’m from the government and we’re incompetent. Good night and good luck!
**lopes off stage right**
(Note: if government is evil, why don’t you save both you and us all this trouble and find something else to do?)
ricky
IWIHNRFMSNOLB. Long live BTD. May he LOL when your Kool Aid Wears Off.
ricky
Message from Jindal on Katrina: Listen to local Democratic Official, live. Listen to Washington Republican official, drown.
YellowJournalism
The thought of what would happen if Rainier erupted always freaked me the hell out as a kid, especially after we were shown a cheesy film about a family that lived only a few miles away from it and how they knew that if the thing blew, they were screwed. The film was an examination of the "ring of fire" along the Pacific coast. Silly "volcano monitoring" indeed.
Although that film still didn’t scare me as much as some freaky Disney fire filmstrip about an entire family that died because they didn’t know how to stop, drop, and roll during a fire. One of the children died because they were in the top bunkbed, of which I also slept in the top bunk at the time. Traumatized me for life.
JGabriel
K-Lo:
As one who remembers exactly how irritating, sing-songy, folksy, and lie-filled Reagan’s speeches were, all I can say is that, for the first time ever, I completely agree with K-Lo.
.