I’m not sure what is selling lower this morning- Citibank or Jindal 2012 stock, but it really is hard to state accurately just how bad it was. It started off like this:
That was Chris Matthews, and while the folks on the right will be screaming about liberal media bias, they might be wise to remember that Matthews is a superficial twit, but he was responding to the optics of the entrance, and the optics were not good. Watch Jindal goofily lope in his weird gait out to the microphone with that uncomfortable smile on his face- all of which happened after Obama’s command performance in the regal chamber in front of hundreds of clapping people. “Oh, God” is right. And then he started to talk. My snap reaction:
Is Jindal addressing the nation or auditioning for the job as Mr. Rogers replacement? WTF is up with this sing-songy delivery? He sounds like he is addressing grade school kids.
Then again, maybe the Republican voters tuned in for him, so maybe he just knows his target audience.
Now, in fairness, the responses are always awful. Every year (with the exception of Jim Webb) someone is trotted out and forced to give the response, and it is at this point the political equivalent of throwing a virgin into a volcano. It is beyond time for them to end. However, there was something just especially awful this year, and already the comparison to Kenneth from 30 Rock is sweeping across the intertubes.
And speaking of volcanoes, Jindal’s response was just nonsense on wheels. Some snippets:
During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: “Well, I’m the sheriff and if you don’t like it you can come and arrest me!” I asked him: “Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?” He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters.
The boats were all lined up ready to go — when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, “Sheriff, that’s ridiculous.” And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: “Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!” Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.
There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens.
Seriously, does the Governor of the state that required several hundred billion FEDERAL dollars to rebuild really want to crow that the government was the problem. Really? That is rugged individualism? And I thought the lesson of Katrina was that an INSUFFICIENT federal response was the problem. Jindal is now claiming that the strength of America is in the individual response. You heard that right. Bobby Jindal says that what America needed was more folks like… Sean Penn. You know- the guy Republicans mocked during the disaster.
And for the life of me, I have no idea why Republicans hate replacing the federal fleet of cars with fuel-efficient vehicles or monitoring volcanoes to avoid disasters. It seems to me that the latter, making sure volcanoes do not blow up on your citizenry, would be something that even Ron Paul would think is a government job.
These guys have nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, they do have Fred Hiatt’s editorial page, where Michael Gerson does the deed this morning, but other than that, the Republican party is just a pathetic joke.
*** Update ***
From the comments:
His entrance was horrific. Stepping out of the shadows, he looks like the psycho killer who’s trying to act normal after just having finished sinking a car with a dead body in the trunk in the swamp behind his house. Did M. Night Shyamalan direct that entrance? Because I see dead people.
zzyzx
I’m still looking for someone, anyone, to explain why mocking volcano monitoring made sense, especially with the line written ("Something called volcano monitoring") to make it sound like you don’t even know what it is!
"Who knows what it is, but it sounds goofy! Let’s mock it!"
"What? Technology that could save the lives of thousands and alert a major company that’s crucial to the defense of our country? Who cares?"
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
After two minutes I wanted to shoot my tv.
After three, I wanted to shove an icepick into my ears and then shoot the tv.
After leaving it on with the sound muted for a while, I turned the sound back on long enough to hear the "monitoring volcanoes" remark… teh stoopid, indeed.
Dan
Doesn’t Jindal sound a LOT like this guy?:
youtube.com/watch?v=v5hNXsK0uEk
Ooooh nooo!
John PM
I choked on my coffee this morning when I read Jindal’s statements that the federal government’s response to Katrina was the problem because it showed that the federal government could not be counted on to handle the response. Not surprisingly, Jindal omitted the fact that it was a Republican president, a Republican administration and a Republicans FEMA filled with hacks that screwed up the response so badly. Of course, this was part of the Republican master plan for all federal agencies: Staff them with incompetents and cronies, underfund them, and then when they are unable to do their jobs point out that the federal government is the problem and everything would be better if things like this were left to the states or to the free market.
BTW, speaking of individual response, I seem to remember a few instances of individuals refusing to allow people from New Orleans to leave New Orleans by blocking bridges and threatening to shoot people.
jenniebee
It is the responsibility of each citizen who chooses to engage in risky behavior like living near a volcano to monitor the volcano himself or accept the consequences.
It worked for Pompeii!
Wait…
PK
As some Indian friends of mine say. He is an ABCD.
Face
Why does a grown man still call himself "Bobby"?
Tim C.
I live within 100 miles of a dormant Volcano.
I teach within eyesight of a waterway that will flood with at least a 40 foot high wall of water, ash and debris moving at 200 miles per hour when that volcano has a major eruption.
Bobby Jindal: Fuck you. Fuck you right in your ear!
eyepaddle
The volcano bit had my jaw dropping too–THAT is what the GOP figured would be a good item to pick–out of $787 billion bill. I knew it was over then.
Jindal’s rising star, that is.
kid bitzer
okay, but look: this really has me worried.
first, the republicans come up with palin, who is tina fey.
then, they come up with jindal, who is kenneth.
what if they come up with alec baldwin next?
i’m worried that recruiting from 30 rock may turn into a winner for them if they keep it up long enough.
bayville
God that Gershon piece is horrible – and obviously written prior to last night.
Do these GOP PR flacks just write the same script and then insert name of the "hot" politician of the day into column? And it’s shocking to see him compared to … REAGAN, eh?
I see Time has almost the same story about Cantor on its cover this week.
Laura W
The thing that immediately struck me the most in real time last night was the "goofy lope". I was still thinking about it this morning reading last night’s comments. Brings to mind a shy little girl being forced to walk in front of adults to show off her new Easter dress. I hate it when "little girl" is used to demean men (because it really demeans little girls), and I don’t mean it that way. I mean the way he held his body and sort of sidled up to the mic with an awkward, self-conscious grin.
Truly bizarre body language. As someone asked in a previous thread, who was advising him? He should’ve been seated in front of a fire or on a couch.
Dungheap
As I said last night, the money for "something called ‘volcano monitoring’" wasn’t just for "volcano monitoring." It was, well, here:
So, in addition to "something called ‘volcano monitoring’" you’ve got stream gauges, like these here in Louisiana which might be important for, I don’t know, monitoring flood conditions and the like. Not that such things would be important in a state like Louisiana.
camchuck
Jindal convinced me that if we cut taxes for the rich, they spend that money more wisely than the government. The well-to-do always spend their extra dough protecting citizens from natural disasters.
Atanarjuat
Mr. Cole, the start of the following sentence features a typo.
"Watch Jindal goofily lope in his weird gate out to the microphone…"
Unless I’m mistaken, I think you meant "gait" instead of "gate."
-A
sgwhiteinfla
Gerson writes
Man did Jindal make Gerson eat a steaming shit sandwhich today after his anti-government rant last night. Now neither one of them look like they have any credibility. I of course am quite happy with that lol.
Rommie
"Volcano Monitoring" just shows another disconnect – Volcanoes are exotic kabooms that happen only in poor furriner countries, because us smart (real) Americans don’t live next to volcanoes about to blow up.
Some peon speechwriter probably saw Volcano Monitoring and equated it with something like UFO Monitoring, and thought it "wacky" enough to hammer home a point. The SNL board room meeting all clapped together in agreement, and presto, a delicious can of FAIL.
kay
I thought he was going to be average good to really good. I’ve listened to him. He’s smart. He was really, really bad. I’m surprised.
Something has gone terribly awry with Republican candidate training methods. This is the second governor they have broken. Third, if you count Mitt Romney.
Zifnab
IOKIYAR. If Sean Penn had done a photo-op with the President, he’d be lauded as a hero. Alternately, they would have accepted Rocky.
Was the nameless bureaucrat also a welfare queen? Perhaps an islamofascist? Or a self-hating jew? Maybe a limousine liberal? One of the drive-by media? Was he "from the government, here to help"?
Stories like this that lash out at annoymous, faceless, amorphous individuals always stink of bullshit. I’d love to know who this government agent was and perhaps hear his side of the story, but we never will. Did the Sheriff fuck up and lose all his paperwork, then blame it on everyone but himself? Did Jindal and Lee blow off the federal officer and go riding off into the sunset to save New Orleans single-handed like a pair of Lone Rangers? Who knows? All we have is the phantom story of the brave small town cop and the Man Who Would Be President and their arch-nemesis Bureaucrat McHatesAmerica. :-p
ThymeZoneThePlumber
Palin, Jindal, Barbour.
Their governor-fu is weak.
zzyzx
At least Free Republic knows what the REAL problems with the speech were!:
*******************************************************
I heard Jindal on the radio earlier today. Sounded squishy.
A Republican should have gone on tonight and said:
Why have you spent over a million dollars keeping your birth certificate locked up?
Are you a natural-born citizen? Are you even a citizen?
Since your grandfather, father, mother, and mentor, and all your associates since childhood have been Communists—Why aren’t you a Communist? Or are you?
Why have you seized control of the census?
Why have you given ACORN $4 billion? Isn’t there enough thuggery and vote fraud to satisfy you?
Of course the “stimulus bill” had no earmarks—It was 100% PORK from beginning to end. Earmarks are pork! If a bill is 100& pork, there’s no need for earmarks.
Why is the money supply shooting up like a moon rocket?
And why have you spent over a million dollars keeping your birth certificate locked up? (I know—I want to see this question repeated.)
******************************************************
Man do I wish they had gone there. It would have been even better!
Rome Again
@Face:
to cover up the fact that his first name is really Piyush.
That would be Not Bobby the Not 45. ;)
Face
I’ll bite. What’s this mean?
Comrade Darkness
Ouch. Jindal : not ready for prime time.
Unfortunately, right wing memories are short (well, for mistakes made by anyone willing to parrot right wing talking points). I’m sure he’ll be back again.
Legalize
What are you guys talking about? That was one of the most creepy zombie pictures I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of –
What’s that?
barkleyg
THIS is the best the GOP has to offer. I feel Great this morning. Things suck from the last 8 years of a monarchy, but I feel great because the GOP has shown it is devoid of ideas, and more importantly, candidates that have any credibility.
To the GOP– Jindhle ain’t no Obama!
So what’s left on the extremre right side. We have 21st century creationists(sweet Sara and the Huckster). two governors that don’t even know the history of the great depression ( Sanford and Pawlenty) and the biggest schmuck of all who blows whichever way his hair tells him to blow, Romney.
The GOP cupboard is bare; would any of these bums even be on a "C" squad of Dem candidates. No real candidates, still not having learned that tax breaks are not the golden eggs they keep saying they are( proof of the pudding is the last 8 years of a tax-break theory of economics), and in the end, the core of their party is living in a different universe.
John Cole
@Atanarjuat: Thank you, I did. I was just talking to my mom the other day (an English teacher), that as I age I have become terrible with homphones. I don’t understand it.
Rome Again
@zzyzx:
Really, I read 4 separate FReeper threads on Jindal last night and got a good dose of schadenfreude. It was great fun. ;)
Dennis-SGMM
@sgwhiteinfla:
It’s not an anti-government rant when Jindal does it. It’s actually an example of his deep thinking and his belief in the steadfast self-reliance of the Real American. Just as Sarah Palin’s verbalizations are not disconnected, incoherent ramblings, they are plain speech from someone who understands our problems.
Just as Republicans believe that tax cuts can be spun into gold for the government so they believe that hacks can be spun into viable candidates for their party.
Ned R.
@Comrade Darkness:
With YouTube clips following him for the rest of his days.
Rome Again
@kay:
God is no longer with them. ::evil laugh::
Dennis-SGMM
@Face:
ABCD= "American-Born Confused Desi."
ThymeZoneThePlumber
@Rome Again: You are a brave soul. I can’t read that freeper stuff, it makes my brain hurt :)
camchuck
At least there was no green screen.
Punchy
Eye doughnut no watt your talking a bout.
And it’s "homophone". What gay peeps use to stay in touch.
Mazacote Yorquest
David Brooks called it the worst response speech ever, which, as a commenter at Coates’s site rightly infers, makes him "Comic Burke Guy."
Rome Again
@Laura W:
They were trying to make him look "presidential" with that side entrance into the public hall like you would see at a presidential press conference. UGH! He did it very poorly.
barkleyg
@Face:
Why does a grown man still call himself "Bobby"?
to cover up the fact that his first name is really Piyush.
So funny. He don’t use his first name because Repugs are sooo anxious to "lay blame for a name".
jimmiraybob
Any statistics on whether volcanoes are more prevalent in Democratic enclaves? Seattle (Washington), Oregon, California and Hawaii come to mind – all "blue" states in the last election.
Dennis-SGMM
@Rome Again:
After the CA GOP voted to refuse party funds to Republicans who voted for the compromise budget I’d say that they aren’t even with them. Comparisons to The Terror aren’t altogether out of place as the R’s race to purge all but the purest of the pure.
Rome Again
@ThymeZoneThePlumber:
Oh, these threads were easy, they hated the Jindal response almost as much as we did. It was a wonder to behold. They were saying things like "he’s not going to be ready for 2012".
Adrienne
Wait. Isn’t the SHERIFF a part of, you know, like, the government?
Robin G.
I think the only Republican having a good morning is Tim Pawlenty.
Dennis-SGMM
@jimmiraybob:
The Yellowstone Caldera in Wyoming is huge and active. The Snake River Plain-Yellowstone Volcanic Province in Idaho is the most active area of volcanism in the US.
Rome Again
@eyepaddle:
Jindal’s rising star is falling.
Anton Sirius
@Mazacote Yorquest:
OMFG. That’s genius.
I cannot wait for the inevitable "Take me to the Appleby’s salad bar at warp speed!" captions on Simpsons stills.
PK
The term ABCD means American born confused desi. Desi refers to being someone "from the homeland’.
It refers to a first generation south Asian immigrant who is confused about his/her identity and goes overboard in his desperation to fit in. Jindal is the perfect example.
His use of the name Bobby ( as opposed to his given name Piyush), change of religion (even to the point of embracing exorsism), belief that non christians (and therefore his own ancestors) are going to hell is about as far as you can get from your south Asian roots. The only thing the poor guy is stuck with is his color.
Dennis-SGMM
Jindal went from rising star to collapsar.
ThymeZoneThePlumber
@Rome Again: Well, they are right. Even with four years of speech coaching there is no way he can run against Obama and come within ten million votes of winning.
That would make McCain a better candidate.
Joe Biden also points out that Jindal failed to mention one little detail of his approach to the present crisis: What would he do right now?
Aside from bashing unnamed "bureaucrats" he didn’t mention any alternative strategy, did he?
MikeJ
Dennis, Alaska too. Mt. Redoubt.
Anton Sirius
BTW, John, you’ve probably already seen it but there’s an uprated diary on the Great Orange Satan offering up semi-convincing evidence that the Sheriff Lee story was a total lie.
Atanarjuat
David Brooks’ reaction to Bobby Jindal’s speech last night is right, of course. Moreover, I get the impression that Jindal didn’t actually watch Obama’s speech before he gave the official GOP response, or, worse still, he did watch the speech but decided to stick to the script. Literally.
Ultimately, I suspect that Bobby Jindal was set up to fail by the other Republican presidential hopefuls and their supporters. Maybe he really believed that whole "rising star" meme that we all kept hearing in the media, and, as a result, overreached and made to look like nervous fool.
Whatever the case might be, I think the GOP will need to retool a bit more until a credible leader emerges. It’s only been a few months since the election, so trying to rush matters isn’t really helpful.
-A
Rome Again
@ThymeZoneThePlumber:
said in my best Gomer Pyle: "well, gosh TZ, I guess they’re all out of idears – uh-haw-haw-haw".
;)
Atanarjuat
P.S. You’re quite welcome, Mr. Cole. I often make these homonym errors myself, which is why I’m sensitive to them.
-A
Pasquinade
re: volcano monitoring
Maybe Jindal sees stopping volcano monitoring as a way to take out the 2012 competition, i.e., Redoubt volcano in Alaska.
Volcano monitoring is conducted largely by the United States Geological Survey, and is aimed at helping geologists understand the inner workings of volcanoes as well as providing warnings of impending eruptions.
USGS scientists are currently monitoring Alaska’s Mount Redoubt, which has been threatening to erupt since late January. Seismic rumblings from the volcano have alerted geologists that magma might be moving around underneath the surface, preparing to make a potentially explosive appearance.
Volcano monitoring likely saved many lives — and significant money — in the case of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines (where the United States has military bases), according to the USGS.
livescience.com/environment/090225-jindal-volcano-monitoring.html
Laura W
@Rome Again: Yeah, but don’t you think that at least one "wise" person might suggest video taping a run through like they do in high school public speaking class just to, you know, see how it reads? Critique it, so to speak?
I really need to stop over thinking stuff. It’s exhausting.
Rome Again
@Pasquinade:
Thank you. I needed that belly laugh! ;)
I think I scared my cat though.
Rome Again
@Laura W:
Laura, the party of no ideas has NO IDEAS, that includes run through rehearsals to see if the entrance looks good.
Left Coast Tom
@Dennis
CA: Long Valley Caldera, Mts. Shasta and Lassen.
OR and WA: bloody near every peak along the Cascades crest.
Someone else mentioned AK.
Might be useful to monitor some of this…
Reminds me of 1995…some Republican loon from Ohio (name escapes me now) proposed eliminating the USGS. That woke up Don Young (R-AK).
jackiebinaz
Rome Again
@Left Coast Tom:
Guess that guy from Ohio figured all the topography had been mapped out and the USGS was no longer necessary?
Such simpletons, they really don’t think things through, do they?
Paul Weimer
@jimmiraybob
What about Alaska? And Wyoming/Montana/Idaho (The Yellowstone Caldera)…
John S.
These words will come back to haunt you, goat-fucker.
Zifnab
@Anton Sirius: I’m so not shocked, it pains me.
jibeaux
I know Kenneth Purcell. I laugh at Kenneth Purcell. Kenneth Purcell brings joy to millions of viewers. You, Bobby, are no Kenneth Purcell.
Left Coast Tom
Something jogged my memory that the Ohio Guy might have been Kasich. I couldn’t find anything mentioning him, but did find this. Proposed budget cuts could eliminate USGS
Zifnab
@jackiebinaz: Congressman. He wasn’t governor yet.
Rome Again
@Anton Sirius:
These guys lie no matter WHAT they’re trying to do. OMFG!
That’s too funny. Thanks for the link. ;)
Ash Can
Yeah, like maybe how a rairoad track switch could probably use a little retooling in this photo.
Cyrus
@eyepaddle:
Heh, this reminds me, on another blog I’ve seen the word "meteoric" used to describe Jindal’s career. That usage – that is, a "meteoric rise" – always bugs me because meteors don’t rise, they fall. (It’s not like there’s any shortage of alternative, more logical phrases, either. "Rocketing up"? "Shooting up"?)
But just for once, if Jindal’s speech was really as bad as people here are saying, it might have been an unintentionall correct usage.
Surly Duff
Sure he did. Cut taxes and then cut more taxes. Cutting taxes: the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.
Punchy
This is great news for Bobby Jindal.
Rome Again
@Cyrus:
It was actually worse than we’re saying it was. Even FReepers agree it sucked. There are no words to describe it really. You need to see a video of the response if you can find one (warning: keep all liquids away from your computer, or it will not be safe).
camchuck
@Adrienne:
No, a sheriff has a gun. The miliary is armed, too, and that doesn’t count as big government or gov’t spending either.
Maybe if they arm bank regulators and volcano watchers we’ll see some GOPers reach out a little bit.
Dave
@Surly Duff:
Good Lord. You are right; the GOP are goofy for tax cuts the way Homer is goofy for beer. All you have to do are swap the two:
Mmmmm…tax cuts.
Jindal no function tax cuts well without.
I would kill everyone in this room for a sweet tax cut.
Tax cuts… Now there’s a temporary solution.
Mouse Tolliver
His entrance was horrific. Stepping out of the shadows, he looks like the psycho killer who’s trying to act normal after just having finished sinking a car with a dead body in the trunk in the swamp behind his house. Did M. Night Shyamalan direct that entrance? Because I see dead people.
JL
Jindal’s delivery was so bad, that Matt Lauer was reading part of his speech today, rather than showing Jindal deliver it.
Surly Duff
Exactly, it can act as a replacement for all Republican talking points:
– All right brain, you don’t like me and I don’t like you, but let’s just do this and I can get back to killing you with tax cuts.
– A woman is like tax cuts. They look good, they smell good, and you’d step over your own mother just to get one!
– Tax cuts are a way of life, my way of life, and I aim to keep it.
– Ah, good ol trustworthy tax cuts – my love for you will never die.
– No tax cuts and no TV make Homer somthing somthing…
Go crazy?
Don’t mind if I do
– Unemployed? Out of work? Sober? You sat around the house all day, but now it’s Republican Time! Republicans, the tax cut that makes the days fly by!
Napoleon
@Zifnab:
Like the nameless people who through Oreos at Michael Steele, or the nameless people who dissed Vietnam Vets when they came home, or . . . oh, yeah, those stories and a bunch others floated over the years from the right have fallen completely apart when any one has investigated them.
Punchy
I’m having a problem understanding why his entrance was so "bad". WTF was he supposed to do, drop from the ceiling? What’s the prob with coming thru a door? Isn’t that how 100% of non-criminals enter rooms?
I’m serious. Why all the claptrap on this faux flap?
Mazacote Yorquest
Re: Dave @ 75
"All tax cuts and no plan makes America something something."
"Go down the crapper?’
"Don’t mind if we dooooo!" (Larry Craig joke to end it)
greynoldsct00
Sorry if anyone has already posted this, but it’s too funny not to pass on
TBogg
Zifnab
@Napoleon: Right. It’s an old gag. The classic strawman argument, except you’re going to extra mile and actually inventing a man to take the hits.
Nice way to make a point until you zero out your credibility.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
[shorter Bobby Jindal]:
"Holy crap, that guy Obama can give a speech! I’d rather be thrown alive into an active volcano than go up against that in 2012."
[Americans all over the western US]: We can arrange that for you.
Conservatively Liberal
@Dungheap:
As anyone who uses the stream gauges that are available through the NOAA web site can tell you, there are a lot of broken stream gauges out there. The stream gauges allow people to be alerted to flood conditions, not only in your area but surrounding areas too. They provide current, forecast and historical data, right there for anyone to use. Very useful data, especially in flood times.
I live on the Pacific coast in Oregon and we kind of like the idea of someone monitoring volcanoes and streams for us. Maybe it is the idea that we dare to predict ‘Acts of God’ that the Rushublicans find abhorrent?
Maybe they like to live with big surprises, kind of like ‘life roulette’? Maybe it makes things interesting in what would otherwise be a boring existence for them?
Dave
@Punchy:
Because he came in from the side in that loping walk of his. It looked like something you would see in a high-school debate.
The right move would have been to either already have him at the podium or have him walk down the hall to the podium.
Conservatively Liberal
Hep me! Hep me! Da BJ Mod Gawd is demanding I sacrifice a virgin from Georgia to get my post approved. There aren’t any!
Ned R.
Well, anyway, it was definitely off the chain, so Steele’s strategy is in full effect.
SnarkIntern
@Atanarjuat:
So A, your hypothesis is that the whole Jindal-fail thing was a deliberate setup by his fellow Republicans?
That’s how your team operates? Heh. You are into some comedy gold now, compadre. Really.
I’ll tell you bad Jindal was. Insiders of both parties are now questioning whether having a "response" speech after a big event like last night is even a good idea.
Personally, I think that the "response" idea is a loser, even without taking Jindal into account. Jindal’s performance just seals it.
Who would invent a speech to follow a big event and …. what? Try to upstage it? Try to out-clever it? Try to degrade it? What is the theory here?
The only way the model works is if you have Jindal make the speech to Congress, and Obama make the response. Unfortunately for the GOP, that ain’t happening for a long, long time.
I think I’d come up with a better way to "respond" to these events. Maybe a Mary Kay party?
Rome Again
@Punchy:
Yeah, considering that 100% of non-criminals have walked in and out of entrances and turned corners in hallways hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of times, you’d think he’d have this down pat by now, eh? Instead he looked totally creepy and inept and when he opened his mouth and spoke and told the story of how he was born and how his parents couldn’t afford a doctor, all doubt of how uneasy the whole thing seemed was completely disappeared.
JL
@Conservatively Liberal: Don’t mock GA. We have born again virgins down here, so there!!
Mike in NC
Governor Jindal, we have Michael Jackson on the phone.
Rome Again
@SnarkIntern:
LMAO!
SnarkIntern
@Rome Again: Hey, don’t laugh. At a Mary Kay party, they might figure out a way to cover up Jindal’s Homer Simpson five o’clock shadow.
Dave
@SnarkIntern:
I disagree. A response can be effective if delivered by the right person. Webb’s response to Bush was a good one and quite effective IMHO.
The GOP chose the wrong guy and had the wrong setting. It was a bust all the way around.
Rome Again
@SnarkIntern:
He’s learning how to shave, he’ll have it under control in about six years.
Laura W
@Dave: "The right move would have been to either already have him at the podium"
I was thinking this same thing after spending way too much time dwelling on this issue this morning. Just have him standing still there, looking composed, a far better choice.
"or have him walk down the hall to the podium."
I also imagined this in my mind’s eye, a la watching a graceful Obama with his easy, relaxed strike walking down hallways.
I don’t think it would’ve worked for Jindal. I think it would have merely prolonged the loping, goofy (probably self-conscious) gait, just giving some of us more fodder for over think and ridicule. But optics matter. And like everything in life, it’s all perception and how we process it anyway.
Rome Again
Even if he were standing at the podium, we’d still be here talking about that weird speech. It wasn’t just the entrance.
Rome Again
@Dave:
I have to agree with you Dave (sorry TZ). For six years Democrats were completely shut out of the governing process entirely, and during that six years the only thing we still had was a response to Bush’s SOTU speeches.
If the Repubs are making such poor choices that’s their problem. I don’t think the response format itself is a problem, it’s the choice of who and how it is (or in this case, was) presented.
Patrick
Having watched Republicans (and Democrats from the Clinton years), in the Age of Google, I do not doubt the story is a complete fabrication. I was going to say that within hours the proof will be posted on a blog, but I guess it has already happened.
When will people figure this out? You can’t make shit up anymore.
Bobby Skittles Jindal
Is it just me or is republican FAIL so horrificly bad and so comically good, it’s a little eerie?
SnarkIntern
I think you missed my point. The point is, if you have a competant and popular and inspiring speechifier making a bigtime speech, what are you going to try to do? Out-competant, out-popular and out-inspire him?
That’s called a Fool’s Errand.
Your Webb-Bush example only proves my point. Bush is an ass, and Webb is a mensch. Webb can run circles around Bush in any contest. Mismatch.
The GOP is not going to come up with some miracle worker who can go on tv ten minutes after a big, successful Obama speech and score points against Obama. It’s a bone-stupid idea from the get-go.
The fact that they found a bone-stupid guy foolish enough to try it, notwithstanding.
Bobby Skittles Jindal
Jindal & Steele. Yayz, we put dark face on white partee cuz wildly popular new Dem prez is half-black. No one will notice how bad we suck. Bobby Jindal is the next Oba . . .
woops
Rome Again
@SnarkIntern:
It’s a check and balance for when we have an idiot for president (like the last one).
Napoleon
@Patrick:
I have for a few years now suspected that the rise of easy availability of info on the net, and the fact that video cameras are everywhere is going to hurt the Republicans way more then the Dems because I really believe they are way more likely to make stuff up (not that Dems are saints, its just that their positions tend to be more popular then the Rep, so they don’t need to) and events with their base is much more likely to leed to them saying things the average person would find objectionable (because they by far have a larger extremist element to their base).
SnarkIntern
@Rome Again: True.
The GOP’s problem right now is that it will be 2016 before they get to elect another idiot president.
That’s a long time to wander in the desert like Jesus looking for a sign. Or an aloe plant.
Or whatever He was doing out there.
Rome Again
@Napoleon:
IOW they have to make up stories to fit their narrative because they can’t come up with any truthful examples?
Atanarjuat
@SnarkIntern:
There’s always that possibility. You easily (and quite conveniently) forget that intra-party maneuvering and fighting can get quite intense as the political office sought after gains in importance. If that weren’t true, then the prolonged nomination battle between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama would never have occurred, for example.
Sorry to be the one to school you on this, Snarkie, but sabotage and backstabbing is a fact of life in politics. There’s no left or right side to it. The longer you’re exposed to political campaigns at any level, the more you’ll see just how true this is.
You’re welcome.
Meanwhile, I never said I that knew for sure that Jindal was set up to be a sacrificial lamb, but considering the inflated expectations for Jindal going in, and how, after the fact, the conservative reaction has been muted to outright hostile, I can only wonder.
-A
Rome Again
@SnarkIntern:
Jesus only spent about a month in the desert. The Hebrews spent 40 years there.
What do you care if we have perhaps 4, probably 8 years to watch this comedy play out? You laughed, didn’t you? Enjoy it. ;)
Rome Again
@Atanarjuat:
Are you seriously suggesting that just when it looks like Republicans are having a hard time getting anything to go their way, they went all in on a pair of threes? You can’t be serious.
By the way, "Snarky" as you call him, has been politicking for the better part of 50 years, you’re not schooling him, you dolt.
SnarkIntern
@Atanarjuat:
Your spoofsnark is downgraded from "Buy" to "Sell" today.
Take the rest of the day off and get some mojo going for yourself.
Get a massage, maybe a pedicure. Come back tomorrow, refreshed and ready to play.
SnarkIntern
@Rome Again:
Fired up and ready to go! I expect to see the Whigs make a comeback before the GOP can pull it off.
ricky
Shorter Jindal on lessons from Katrina: Listen to local Democratic Sheriiff, live. Listen to Republican Official from Washington, drown. Proof: Republican Congressman listen to Democrat, lives to leave D.C. and become Governor.
SnarkIntern
Where did you learn your creative writing? Didn’t they teach you not to use all those extra weakening words?
"You forgot …." as opposed to "You easily (and quite conveniently), forgot ……"
Don’t throw words away. Don’t use ten when two will do.
This is basic stuff, dude. Are you just auditing the class, and therefore not interested in the grade? At least have some regard for the others in the class, and try to keep up.
Ash Can
@Rome Again:
@SnarkIntern:
You guys haven’t lived until you’ve been to a Mary Kay party that featured copious amounts of weed.
…um, so I’ve heard.
Rome Again
@ricky:
Sorry Ricky, the story was made up. There is a diary about it on Kos. The sheriff is now deceased and not able to rebut the story, but evidence exists from past interviews and written material to piece together proof that Jindal never met the sheriff at the time of the evacuation.
Atanarjuat
@Rome Again:
I’m suggesting no such thing. I do happen to agree with David Brooks that Governor Bobby Jindal’s response speech wasn’t that good, and, in fact, was a disaster.
Considering that this is good news at the moment for you leftists, I think you can only agree.
Then Snarky shouldn’t be saying things like this:
"So A, your hypothesis is that the whole Jindal-fail thing was a deliberate setup by his fellow Republicans?
That’s how your team operates? Heh. You are into some comedy gold now, compadre. Really."
An obtuse statement like this deserves to be corrected, which I more than capably did. Thank you.
-A
ricky
Rome Again, it matters not whether the story was true or not. The $ 8 billion for the Mickey, Minnie and Nancy Pelosi Mouse Express train from Disneyland to the City Wayne Newton Built is false also.
The lesson, however, remains. Listen to Democrat, live.
Listen to Republican, drown.
SnarkIntern
Liar. Nothing obtuse about it, all I did was restate your theory.
If you are claiming that Republicans are so craven that their main interest in the face of a great national crisis is to injure the prospects of a supposedly "rising star" in their party, for their own purposes, risk to the country be damned, then just say so.
Just declare yourself a defender of that corrupt machine, and be done with it. Don’t make this about me. This is about you, and the Republicans.
Can you stand up for something here, or not?
Buck
Sounds more like a Mary Jane party to me.
Jwh186
These claims from the GOP governors about picking and choosing what they want to accept, or not, from the stimulus plan has to STOP! They don’t have line item veto power. It’s take it ALL or leave it ALL! Will someone in the national media please address this??
ricky
One of the joys of commenting is the right to issue uncalled for "politically corrrect"ions. I think people are confused about this ABCD thing and Jindal.
First, isn’t a Caucasoid making that comment like a Caucasoid calling a black person an Oreo? Even when they say "As my Indian friends would say…?" (I apologize to any Nader voters this observation might offend.
Second, wouldn’t "D" stand for something other than Desi?
I know Desi was a Cuban immigrant because I adopted his screen name.
SnarkIntern
Well, did you hear Jindal’s opening remarks? Black president, slavery, lunch counter to oval office?
WTF? We elected a president, not a "black president."
Fuck Jindal.
SnarkIntern
Not only playing some kind of coded race card thing, but slamming the healthcare system in the same breath.
Why isn’t this guy a Democrat? At least then he could get some self-respect going.
Laura W
@SnarkIntern:
I’m thinking Ben Stein really impressed on CBS Sun morn a week or two back.
Rome Again
@ricky:
How are you so sure that the person making the ABCD comment is caucasian? Do you have a bunch of us on webcam? (not!)
I remember for years thinking that Steve Gilliard was probably a white guy because there are so many white guys that I just didn’t think about it but, instead, just assumed it was probably so. Imagine my surprise when I found out he was not causasian at all, on the day his death was announced.
Aren’t you in fact stereotyping white guys by assuming that the person who made the comment must be caucasian?
South of I-10
Mr. South and I were talking about it last night (granted we were both a little fuzzy from Mardi Gras merriment), we decided someone told him to change his speech pattern. He usually talks really fast. I think someone told him to slow down, and he was not handling it well and it came out in that weird sing song way.
ricky
Snarkintern @ 125
Drop the prefix.
ricky
Rome Again @128
You may very well be right, but you, like Intern, need to adjust your snarkometer or I need to tone down on the obscure. But I thought the "my Indian friends" was a code to ethnic identity. Then again, I thought my use of "Caucasoid" was a give away to my intent.
Atanarjuat
@SnarkIntern:
Snarkie, enough already. You stated something demonstrably naive. A lesson followed, which you should learn from rather than sulking.
At this point, your drama queen protestations are becoming more like, "I fart in your general direction." If you’re as old as Rome Again implied, then please act your age and show a little dignity.
-A
Chris Andersen
@Adrienne:
God damn but I was going to point out the same thing. The utter inability of the dead-enders to get this point demonstrates better than anything how clueless they are.
ET
My mother in NOLA was so excited the governor from her homestate was giving the rebuttal.
ricky
If Obama’s oratory causes Tweety’s leg to tingle, does Jindal’s jive cause Brooks Burkean bells to shrivel?
Peter Principle
Having spent several days buttoned up in my house waiting for it to stop raining mud after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, I’m rather fond of volcano monitoring.
On the other hand, we never get hurricanes in the Pacific Northwest, so I think we should stop spending money on "something called storm levees" down in Lousiana.
I mean, since when is it the role of the federal government to waste money on porkulus like that?
John PM
@SnarkIntern: #126
In your post you had this quote from Jindal’s speech:
If I may, I would like to be the first person to offer the "Bobby Jindal cannot run for president because he is not a U.S. citizen" argument. Think about it. Republicans insist that life begins at conception; this is why there can be no abortion. Indeed, the have gone so far as to demand that fetuses be given full rights as human beings. At the time Bobby’s parents conceived him, they were Indian citizens and living in India. Therefore, Jindal is an Indian citizen. The fact that Bobby may have been technically born in Louisiana does not save him because he became an Indian citizen the moment he was conceived. Clearly, his parents fraudulently obtained a U.S. birth certificate for him (I assume, I have never actually seen it). Indeed, it is likely that Bobby is illegally in this country since he has never applied for U.S. Citizenship. Therefore, after Obama finishes deporting his aunt, Obama will need to start deportation proceedings against Bobby. While the proceedings are taking place I suggest that Bobby be held at Gitmo because all of those dark-skinned foreigners cannot be trusted. In fact, how do we not know that Bobby did not have something to do with the levees breaking in 2005. It would be irresponsible not to speculate. Anyway, I believe I will look up that Oil Taint (Spelling?) dentist/lawyer in California and ask her to file a case seeking an injunction to remove Jindal from the governorship of Louisiana and to prevent him from running for president in the future.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go take my 10 meds.
SnarkIntern
Nope, liar. The posts are right there, man. Is your argument that since I quesitoned your assertion, I am naive?
All I did was ask if that assertion was really what you wanted to rest on. The idea that in all of this, what you find is that Jindal was set up to fail? Seriously, that is your argument du jour?
I can’t even describe that. It’s beyond weak, it’s nonsensical, it’s insulting, it’s without any supporting evidence, it’s accusatory of your own (supposed) tribe.
WTF man? You make a silly boner in here and then spend all day trying to make me the subject because I called you on it?
Is that really your schtick?
JenJen
On "Morning Poison" today, Pat Buchanan said that Jindal looked like he was giving his response from a Plantation Birthing Room.
I have to admit, I LOL’d.
Wile E. Quixote
@John PM
Dude, I’ll bet that if you cleaned this up a bit you could post it over on RedState and get a real firestorm going. Go for it.
I love the whole "The Republicans threw Bobby Jindal" under the bus meme. It’s as if the people making this argument believe that the Republicans had a whole bunch of great candidates in the wings but decided that they needed to let Bobby go out there and fuck up spectacularly so they could get him out of the way for the real rising stars of the party. I’m going to start using this meme to explain the dismal record of the Huskies, my alma mater’s football team when people mock their 0-12 season last year. "Um, yeah, we were 0-12 last year, but that’s because we wanted the team we had and the coach we had to go out and fail spectacularly so we could get them out of the way for the next season. Yeah, that’s the ticket."
passerby
Yes, the responses always seem to be god-awful, but I think opposing party responses should be given.
Any number of Balloon Juicers could write a decent response to any SotU address as we have the advantage of NOT being politicians and can be as frank and as candid as necessary in addressing the realities of the day. I’m not as partisan as other commenters here but a fair-minded individual would be able to see both sides and articulate some cogent counterpoints.
Why else can’t the opposers just give a well reasoned response? They’re too busy jocking for votes and political power–political hackery. Political hackery isn’t playing well with the populace like it used to. Its petty and we’re sick of it.
In my view, there are reasonable objections to be made about how the country can dig out of this mess and how much (and how long) the involvement of government is required.
Head of the Class
So after all that hype the quincenero didn’t go as planned. Back to the drawing board!
passerby
@Wile E. Quixote:
@John PM:
I second what Wile E. Quixote said. I don’t usual get involved in the whole "pro-Life" idiocy because, to me, it’s an exercise in futility. But, JohnPM’s outstanding observation throws a solid sterling silver monkey wrench into the whole "life begins at conception" argument.
Atanarjuat
Sorry, Rome Again, but I’m hard pressed to believe your friend, Snarkie, has any depth of age or political experience. The "I know you are, but what am I?" line of argumentation is something many of us have left behind with childhood, yet (not) inexplicably, Snarkie embraces with adolescent enthusiasm.
I think I’ll just a walk away before I witness Snarkie stamping his little foot. That would be embarrassing for everyone concerned.
-A
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
No need for Volcano warning. We need ‘four horsemen of the Apocolypse" watching.
If you want to see where Jindal derived his inspiration for the speech go here:
youtube.com/watch?v=cYfjq3ZYZbA
classic!
Corner Stone
@Rome Again
Seriously? You read anything by Gilliard and thought he was a white guy? And this lasted for years?
Pasquinade
Piyush Jindal’s mother was 4 1/2 months pregnant when she and the father came to the US?
Why isn’t Malkin screaming against him?? Piyush is, afterall, one of those anchor babies that she hates so much.
mapaghimagsik
In all seriousness, following Obama in a speech is hard stuff.
However, Jindal seemed to do it in any bad fashion.
If the arguments Jindal provided wasn’t disingenuous claptrap, it might have come off better.
But its all they got.
Da Bomb in Houston
I was just waiting for him to come and sing in his most boisterous voice, "We are the kids from lollipop land, from lollipop land, from lollipop land…"
Rome Again
@John PM:
Love it! :)
Rome Again
@Da Bomb in Houston:
You’re remembering it all WRONG!
"we represent the lollipop guild…"
Rome Again
@Atanarjuat:
I have no idea WTF you’re talking about. You made a silly assertion, and you refuse to admit it now. It doesn’t matter, you look like a fool (which we were already quite aware you are).
Rome Again
@Peter Principle:
I’m afraid Jindal would probably agree with you.
Rome Again
@Corner Stone:
Gilliard wasn’t on my daily read. I came upon him a few times, heard his name mentioned quite often and no, it never occurred to me that he wasn’t white. Perhaps I just happened to read him when he wasn’t mentioning it.