A right-wing partisan friend (whose views I suffer because she is a great friend of my family) sent an email to me some time in the past in which she said: "Bobby Jindal is the future of the GOP, because Bobby Jindal is a statesman."
A statesman of what she did not say. And tonight, after his dismal, laughable performance in delivering the GOP response to President Barack Obama's awesome non-State of the Union address -- even Free Republic is in full meltdown.
Have at it.
Apparently, the dedicated members of Free Republic are as puzzled about Gov. Bobby Jindal’s speech as was Rachel Maddow, who was left speechless by his invocation of Hurricane Katrina. (GAH!)
But, wait! It wasn’t the invocation of the worst federal response to a natural disaster in modern American history that the Freepers were worried about. It was other (more important) issues. Apparently. Huh? Well, let them speak for themselves. Or, well, speak (in relative terms) as best they can.
From one Post.
I think you hit the salient point: Jindal’s speech reads well, bu he did a poor job delivering it.
Admittedly, anyone delivering the "opposition response" has their work cut out for them; the hallway of a governor’s mansion is no substitute for the House Chamber and all the trappings of the presidency.
(Note: Did this person watch Jim Webb's response to President Bush? Apparently not. But I digress.)
Still, I was disappointed in Jindal’s performance. His sing-song delivery sounded like someone who just graduated from the Columbia School of Broadcasting and is trying to avoid a monotone at all costs.
I actually heard Jindal’s speech on both radio and TV. I was in my car when he started and watched the rest on television, after I got home. It was slightly better on television, but he’s got a long way to go in terms of delivery and style. Sadly, those points count for a lot in today’s political environment.
Clearly, someone in the GOP establishment didn’t bother to "screen" Jindal’s speech skills before tonight’s performance. Instead, we gave the Dims a talking point. All the press covearge will be geared to how "poorly" Jindal performed on the national stage, with no regard for what he actually said.
And that’s a damn shame. I’ve seen Jindal in other TV forums (Meet the Press, addressing his state during hurricane emergencies) and he did just fine. And I still believe he would clean the Annointed One’s clock in a debate. But tonight was not his finest hour.
Au contraire. I watched on FOX and the audio was atrocious, but at least Bobby looked us in the eye; something that the MasterOratorBator never did.
Yes, he has a Loosiana accent which doesn’t quite qo with his Indian IT nerd face, but I thought the delivery was great.
(Note: "Indian IT nerd face." So inclusive; so nice.)
OMG: someone who disagrees!
Really saddens me to read some of the downright NASTY FR swipes at Jindahl! Guess you prefer the teleprompter reading skills of the kenyan?!
Perhaps consillatory McCain will run in 2012 ;(
BTW, kenyan did not fool Wall Street as DOW futures are DOWWWWN,.
But not just one post, the Freepers were alive with posts tonight!
Here are some more comments from another.
I have to agree. The setting was horrific; too busy. The suit was ill-fitting and the bold stripped tie was annoying (and I don't know anything about fashion).
I would add that someone needs to teach the GOP about youtube and other networking sites. From what I can tell, there's still no "official" GOP rebuttal video posted.
Uh-oh . . .
Jindal’s speech was a stinker. To begin with, I’m sick of hearing republicans going on and on about how the election of 0bama was so so historic. Jindal’s delivery was poor, and his attempts at personalizing stories kind of fell flat. I’ve heard him speak before, he’s a smart guy, but he’s very dull. If he were to get the nomination in 2012 he’d draw McCain size crowds, maybe a bit bigger. Bored, unenthusiastic crowds don’t volunteer, don’t donate, and sometimes don’t even vote. Last I heard he’s only rejected $98 million of the stimulus for Louisiana, which is just over ten percent. Palin has rejected about 50 percent of the $1 billion offered her state. All she’s taking are for construction projects.
But . . .
"Are you #$%#$#s propping up some other candidate or just dumber than dirt?"
If by candidate you mean someone to pit against 0bama,then, yes, I’m propping up most other potential candidates.
Jindal might govern well in his state but he will NEVER beat 0bama, never in a million years.
Ya think? Oh, well.
There was no problem with the message. Jindal is a true Republican, not a RINO.
The problem was the presentation which looked totally amateur.
Also, Jindal seemed "handled" the same problem that Palin ran into last fall, despite the fact that she’s the most genuine conservative libertarian republican we’ve seen in years.
We need people at the top who are capable of presenting good candidates in a good light.
We have GREAT candidates but they keep being shown in an awful light.
That’s the problem.
OMG: The Handlers! Who are these evil people?
(Note: HA HA HA HA HA HA).
And yet it continues.
Sorry Gov.Rindal. You’ll have to expose this POS Communist for what he is.
Spelling? Not, apparently, a family value. Let us continue.
Exactly, even Palin would have been better IMO.
The other thing that gets me is how Republicans are letting Democrats get away with saying Bush left them this deficit when in fact the source of the trouble goes back to Clinton and continued and expanded through Barney Frank.
I don't get any of the silence of Republicans not harping on this issue over and over.
The people will NOT get the truth about what caused all this if Republicans never have the guts to point out it was Democrats and their affirmative action housing plan, not Bush that caused this.
When, when do Republicans beginning to somewhere fight back?
Jindal is a nice man and a great Gov., but the delivery tonight could have been much better IMO.
He had good points but the speech sounded VERY canned.
This dismal level of performance comes as no surprise.
And, oh my, this:
Jindal did not appear to good effect because he really had nothing to say. The world might well be entering a depression, unemployment is at 7.6% heading towards 10 to 12%, we're in two wars, the government has just pissed away trillions of dollars, we are trillions of dollars in debt and adding trillions more, our entitlement programs are out of control and threaten to precipitate a disintegration, our president threatens to add health care as the greatest entitlement of all to the deficit, at any moment the Chinese could withdraw support of our bonds and the system could crash, and, with all these targets of opportunity, Governor Jindal responds with platitudes, albeit conservative platitudes.
What might the governor have said to effect?
He might, by way of illustration only, have described the role of high gas prices in bringing on this recession. He might have talked about the connection between our petrodollars flowing out of the country and international terrorism. Flushed with these petrodollars states like Russia and Venezuela were also making mischief. And just as the collapse of the price of oil offered some hope of reviving the economy and weakening our adversaries abroad, Obama frustrates reasonable hope of keeping the oil price down by forbidding domestic drilling. Jindal might have pointed out that Obama's solution to energy and its implications for the economy and terrorism was to build windmills.
Alternatively, Jindal might have selected a few of the more egregious chops of pork in the porkulus bill, Ronald Reagan style, and brought the whole of the television audience to its feet shouting, "no!"
We now have seen posters on these threads wax rhapsodic about Bobby Jindal, Michael Steele, General Powell, and Condoleezza Rice, all as potential leaders of the party. We do not need people of color, we need people with colorful language. it matters not if the spokesman is polka dot if he can deliver a message. We have seen tonight one more opportunity squandered for the conservative movement to begin to find a way out of the wilderness.
The party must find a spokesman with vision and drive. Jindal is not the man. Michael Steele's appearance tonight does not demonstrate that he is the man. I want someone breathing murder and fire and I get empty platitudes delivered without the emotion which comes from conviction and patriotism.
And, heaven knows, we could not possibly conclude this without a reference to American patriot Alan Keyes:
Alan Keyes could have done this rebuttal in 5 minutes and
thoroughly debunked Obama’s lies!