by Frank James
Gov. Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana Republican, did a credible job giving his party's response to President Barack Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress. Delivering the response is always a difficult assignment since the president has all the trappings of his office, including the pomp and circumstance of his grand entry into the House chamber.
Jindal appeared comfortable in the role and looked the part of a credible Republican presidential candidate, which he isn't officially, but most everyone expects him to be, perhaps as soon as 2012.
The speech, however, had its jarring moments.
For instance, Jindal told a Hurricane Katrina story about a county sheriff who encountered bureaucratic interference as he tried to get rescue boats into the floodwaters.
Jindal said:
Let me tell you a story. 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 literally yelling into the phone: "Well, I'm the sheriff, and if you don't like it, you can come and arrest me!" I said, "Sheriff, what's got you so mad?" He told me that he'd 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 and ready to go when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out in the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration.
And I told him, "Sheriff, that's ridiculous." Before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone, "Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!" Then he just told those boaters, "Ignore the bureaucrats and go start rescuing people."
There's a lesson in this experience. The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and the enterprising spirit of our citizens. We're grateful for the support we've received from across the nation for our ongoing recovery efforts.
It's worth noting that Jindal never says it was a federal bureaucrat though that's clearly the impression he wants to leave. Is that because it was a Louisiana bureaucrat? No doubt reporters will be chasing down this story to get that and additional details.
A bigger point. Many critics have said that one of the lessons to draw from the Katrina aftermath is that it's dangerous to denigrate government because that leads to the kind of dysfunction we saw following Katrina.
When the legitimate functions of government are trivialized, or when government is seen as not as important as the private sector, that makes it much easier to reach the point where you have an emergency management neophyte like Michael "Brownie" Brown running FEMA and a president not paying as much attention as he should to his administration's preparedness and response to a major disaster, as happened with former President George W. Bush.
It's important to recall that it was helicopter-borne Coast Guard rescue crews who conducted hundreds of rescues. And it was with the arrival of Gen. Russell Honore and the U.S. military that seemed to mark a turn for the better in New Orleans.
Whether it's popular to say or not, it took something of a bureaucracy to orchestrate all of that.
Meanwhile, local and state officials at the time knew they were overwhelmed by the size of the disaster and that they needed federal help. Indeed, the problem they had was that federal resources weren't getting to where they were needed soon enough.
And the levees that everyone hopes will prevent a repeat of Katrina are of course repaired and maintained by another federal bureaucracy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Now, with the nation's economy beset by forces that are too large for the private sector alone to fight, the need for an effective government has never been greater.
So Jindal's dismissing of government's role seemed entirely out of touch with reality partly because he's the governor of a state that suffered greatly after the federal government's disaster-response abilities were allowed to erode.
But his remarks also seemed decoupled from the realities of the moment, a time when many Americans are turning to government for help, when even whole industries like banking and autos are coming to Washington as supplicants because the forces besetting them are larger than even the private sector can manage.
It also seemed odd for the governor of a frequently hurricane-threatened state to belittle the need for volcano-monitoring. If anyone should understand the risk nature can represent to large population centers, it's a Louisiana governor.
Of course, Jindal mentioned volcano-monitoring as a wasteful spending because he needed to justify his public position that he would refuse some of the stimulus money in some way.
Many observers believe Jindal is taking his current stance more from a desire to be in the best position to win the eventual argument with other potential Republican presidential candidates over who is the most fiscally conservative than it has to do with volcanoes.
Jindal was strongest at the end when he used Obama's own fear-mongering against the president:
You know, a few weeks ago the president warned that our country is facing a crisis that he said, in quotes, "we may not be able to reverse." Now, our troubles are real, to be sure. But don't let anyone tell you that we cannot recover. Don't let anyone tell you that America's best days are behind her. This is the nation that cast off the scourge of slavery, overcame the Great Depression, prevailed in two world wars, won the struggle for civil rights, defeated the Soviet menace and responded with determined courage to the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
The American spirit has triumphed over almost every form of adversity known to man. And the American spirit will triumph again. We can have confidence in our future, because amid all of today's challenges, we also count many blessings. We have the most innovative citizens, the most abundant resources, the most resilient economy, the most powerful military and the freest political system in the history of the world.
My fellow citizens, never forget we are Americans. And like my dad said years ago, Americans can do anything.
Even the Obama White House appears to be acting from concern that the president, who trumpeted hope so much during the campaign, might have overdone the use of fear, warning of potential economic "catastrophe," to get his $787 billion economic stimulus package through Congress.
Obama left himself somewhat vulnerable to charges that he was talking down the economy, panicking the financial markets or further depressing the nation's collective psyche. So Jindal did what he needed to do to exploit it.
Comments
We obviously watched two different speeches.
A credible job? Comfortable in the role? Looked the part of a credible Republican presidential candidate? Well, I might give you the last one.
"Jindal was strongest at the end when he used Obama's own fear-mongering against the president...So Jindal did what he needed to do to exploit it." You neglect to mention that the exploitation was through twisting the president's words using only part of the quote.
You also don't bother to mention his baldfaced lie about a mythical rail line between Las Vegas and Disneyland.
Nevertheless, overall I found much more disturbing his distance from reality that you mention.
Although not a fan of Gov. Jindal, this pathetic speech made even me cringe.
Posted by: Skepticat | February 25, 2009 11:05 AM
Bobby Jindal made his national debut in his response to President Obama's speech last night and Governor, YOU BLEW IT.
Jindal needed to show authority, he needed to present an alternative to Obama's plan and he needed to show that the boy-wonder Governor of Louisiana is not the creature of big oil. He failed on all three.
For some idiotic reason, Jindal stood in the foyer of the Louisiana Governor's mansion rather than in his office. His appearance gave the impression of a son home on break, entertaining unexpected guests in his parents' absence.
Governor Jindal's delivery of his speech was sing-songy and irritating. The strange and unnatural way in which he emphasized his words left the impression of a conceited grad student condescendingly explaining things to his intellectual inferiors.
Jindal had a lot of problems with the conceptual content of his speech, too.
Jindal told the audience that the GOP wants to regain our trust. Then he told us that they had gone along with big government and big spending policies. Who does Jindal think the GOP went along with?
If the GOP want us to trust them, they have to stop playing the blame game.
Does Governor Jindal think that we voters will forget that they supported the War in Iraq, the incerease in arms spending, a massive and ineffective new entitlement program, and tried to pay ofr it by enacting a massive tax cut that was supposed to grow us out of the deficits they ran up?
Finally, Jindal has to shake the embrace of big oil. The Governor virtuously called for conservation. Then he spoiled the effect by labelling the high speed train from Los Angeles to points east as the train from Disneyland to Vegas.
Outside of Louisiana, we know that GM and the oil companies sabotaged mass transit in Los Angeles for their own gain. Whether that last is true or an urban legend is less important than that Governor Jindal, as the GOP spokesman has no plan to alleviate congestion and over-relaince on petroleum.
Governor Jindal may well be a smart, talented and forward looking political leader. But last night, when it counted, Bobby Jindal looked like a hack.
Posted by: robert Chapman | February 25, 2009 11:11 AM
If Frank James doesn't like what Jindal said, that proves that Jindal talked sense.
Posted by: Dissent is Patriotic | February 25, 2009 11:12 AM
Jindal was a disaster. If the Republicans had any sense, they would use Gov. Crist or Schwarzenegger and repair the 'obstructionist' image which isn't helping them at all.
Posted by: rupert | February 25, 2009 11:12 AM
It isn't so much what was said but how it was said: condescending. Perhaps Jindal is conditioned to speak down to the uneducated - sure appeared that way last night. Someone should inform Jindal that aRhodes scholar need not talk down to us. Most of us have a high school education, Jindal is out of touch
Posted by: BobalooBob | February 25, 2009 11:26 AM
"My fellow citizens" Buddy, you are not my Governor. Take a step back from your Presidential ambitions and back into reality. You are a terribly wooden speaker and you talk to your "fellow citizens" like they are too stupid to understand complex ideas.
Posted by: dirty tommy | February 25, 2009 11:30 AM
The law and order party touts "lawbreaking."
Priceless.
Posted by: Mimi Schaeffer | February 25, 2009 11:32 AM
Frank-
Ever occur to you that LA has lots of recent experience with bureaucratic "help"? What makes you think that Obama has a magic wand that's going to make the bureaucracy work better? When is the last time you were up close and personal with a natural disaster? Gov. Jindal's been dealing with one every day for a while now. So, which of the two of you is more likely to have a functioning point of view, and which of the two of you just might have have a misshapen point of view?
Get a broader perspective on what you write about before you start slamming people. A big reason Obama did as well as he did is that he stepped away from the politics of decimation. It appears that's what's working now, while the Bush/Clinton formula of smear seems to be not so effective just at the moment.
If Jindal is disaffected, maybe you might want to understand why that's so before you start pecking away on your keyboard.
Pete
Posted by: Pete | February 25, 2009 11:34 AM
This guy is a textbook cretin. He wants to deny the hungry, out of work, desperate proles in his state an extra $100 mil. in unemployment benefits because he doesn't want to upgrade Louisiana third world safety net? That Barbour tw@# is the same kind of 'thinker'.
Heck of a job Bobby.
Posted by: C.Morris✈ | February 25, 2009 11:43 AM
This is exactly what needs to be said while the public dozes through a huge expansion of government to fulfill Obama's socialist fantasies.
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Regarding the GOP's recent setbacks at the polls, Bobby Jindal has said:
"People need to look at the history of Ronald Reagan when he lost his first attempt at the Presidency (in 1976). He didn’t go back and say, ‘Let’s water down the conservatism. Let’s dilute what we’re saying. He made it even stronger.... he made it EVEN sharper. There’s a lesson there for potential candidates" "We need to be principled in our conservatism. We need to be unabashed, unafraid. We won’t always be popular with editorial writers and a lot of the members of the national media... and that’s OK. At the end of the day, it’s more important that we stick to our principles."
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Go get 'em, Bobby... you're a good man, and perhaps someday a great one.
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http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2008/11/palinjindal-2012.html
Posted by: Reaganite Republican | February 25, 2009 12:04 PM
What on earth? Decrying $140 million for "something called volcano monitoring" (would he say "something called hurricane monitoring")?
First off, it's $140 million for the USGS, not specifically for monitoring volcanoes. Secondly, volcano monitoring is 10% of the USGS budget:
http://www.usgs.gov/budget/2009/docs/09JustificationTables_BaseOmnibus_02.xls
The rest goes to things like monitoring for earthquakes, landslides, mapping energy and natural resources, water monitoring, biological research, and so forth. So that's $14 million. Out of nearly $800 billion. Money that'll go to scientists and domestic manufacturers of scientific equipment, who, by the way, are part of our economy, too. And lastly...
Is he out of his freaking gourd? Decrying *volcano monitoring*? Holy heck, of all the things to decry as wasteful, letting people on the west coast know that, hey, you know, a cloud of skin-melting pyroclastic gasses and a 1500-degree laval flow is about to pour into your house, might just be a little bit appreciated by them. Should we go back to a virgin-sacrifice method of dealing with volcanoes? Is this man from freaking outer space?
Posted by: Rei | February 25, 2009 12:27 PM
Priceless! the republican response was to remind everyone how badly a republican administration handled the last major crisis that needed government help.
Not sure who he was working for on that one...
Posted by: tomh | February 25, 2009 12:36 PM
I have a PRE-Existing Condition, I can not get any Health insurance. How dare this Governor, making fun of me & my plight. I will fight to see he never get anywhere nationally!
Dan, 38, diabetic for 16 yrs !
Posted by: Dan | February 25, 2009 12:38 PM
Enough is enough. I don’t mind you being Republican… after all someone has to be rich in America right? But please don’t sit back and reject unemployment money for your people just to make a point while your fellow citizens LOSE their homes and cars. I know because I am in that boat. Champagne on your own money. My cell: 816 668-6438
Posted by: Erwin Jackson | February 25, 2009 12:46 PM
Obama's comments are taken completely out of context. He said we are facing a crisis "we may not be able to reverse." IF we don't do anything. The completion of Obama's quote is "That is not the country I know, and it is not a future I will accept as President of the United States. A world that depends on the strength of our economy is now watching and waiting for America to lead once more. And that is what we will do."
So Jindal implying that Obama said we can't recover, that our best days are over, is complete partisan spin, without basis in fact. Just like when he stated that unnamed Democrats like big government. I guess he was listening to a different speech than the rest of the world, because Obama explicitly said that he does not like big government.
Jindal does like the big lie. Attribute a false statement to your opponent, repeat it over and over, and some people will believe it.
Posted by: Steve | February 25, 2009 12:56 PM
God bless him, but that was the worst, illogical and wooden speech that I have ever seen from a politician. He looked 4 feet tall as he came running up to the mike and then launched into this "history of black trials and tribulations in the US" list ending with Obama getting the presidency...as if the only reason Obama was elected is because he is black. Then blasting the government for their Katrina response, what a mistake. It was a Republican White House that dropped that ball. Sure, we Americans are resourceful and talented and etc., but forces bigger than us, which we have absolutely no control over, have brought us to our knees and we can't get up without some help. U.S. problems are institutional now. What good is a tax break if you don't have a job? Repubs have been promising to rain prosperity down on us via Big and Small Business getting tax breaks for years. Ha ha. I actually felt sorry for Jindal, he looked like an amateur.
Posted by: Mrs. M. | February 25, 2009 12:58 PM
I thought Governor Jindal did an awesome job last night. I am sick and tired of people bashing Republicans - especially the brilliant and future leaders of the party. I hope he runs for President because you can trust him and he is not a socialist. Great job, Governor Jindal!! Give this great country something to hope for.
Posted by: nancy walter | February 25, 2009 12:59 PM
Disagree with "denigrating government...leads to the kind of dysfunction we saw following Katrina."
The deification of government as some sort of omnipotent savior is what leads to dysfunction. The federal government was least responsible for what happened with Katrina. First, the individuals should have had enough sense to leave, or arrange for transportation, get on a bus, ride a bike, hitchhike, whatever. Who could possible be more concerned about one's own safety than oneself?
Second, the city and county governments should have been better prepared, rather than parking evacuation buses in a low spot and then not enforcing the mandatory evacuation was not a good plan.
Third, the state government had more than adequate resources to have faciliated the evacuation and provided temporary shelter.
The federal government's responsibility in situations like Katrina is primarily financial, for cleanup and rebuilding.
New Orleans should have been the first city to win a Darwin Award.
Posted by: jhimmi | February 25, 2009 1:03 PM
I thought it was odd that the Governor's Katrina-Sherriff story - where he concluded that citizens and not the government solve our problems - involved a dispute AMONG government employees (the unnamed state or federal beaurocrat vs. teh sherriff and the Congressman.
Posted by: LA Guy | February 25, 2009 1:22 PM
Talk about a stiff reading off a teleprompter. That would be Jingles. And he's the great Republican hope for 2012. Wow.
Posted by: Doug R. | February 25, 2009 1:35 PM
"Jindal was strongest at the end when he used Obama's own fear-mongering against the president"
Because why would anyone be afraid of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression? These things always work for the best in the end, right?
Jeez, the sooner America's corporate media, and trained parrots like Frank James, hit the ashcan of history, the better off this country willl be.
Posted by: Peter Principle | February 25, 2009 1:39 PM
I full-heartly agree with the Gov., I am disgusted with the general embracing of Utopian Socialism. What happen to the personal responsibility we have as individuals, why does our government "need" to take "care" of you. 99.9% of us are in the boat were in because of our own bad decisions. Keep waiting for the hand out and wake up in communism.
Posted by: Proud Captialist | February 25, 2009 1:47 PM
The Jindal response was a sad caricature of leadership.
The criticism of volcano monitoring was particularly sad. Once again we saw another politician more interested in offering a flip response than sound policy.
Misinformed politicians can get people killed. Jindal wants to kill volcano monitoring? OK. Here's what could happen:
In Alaska, where I live, there was a volcanic eruption a number of years ago that injected a cloud of particulates high into the atmosphere. A 747- loaded with people- flew into the ash cloud. (Some ash clouds may be nearly invisible even in daylight. At nighttime- forget it.)
Suddenly, all four engines stopped working. The ash had damaged all the engines and etched the planes wind shield making it tough for the pilot to see out.
The pilot struggled to get the engines re-lit, while losing altitude above mountains, before limping into Anchorage International Airport.
Several hundred people nearly lost their lives in that one incident. Because of this incident we began monitoring these eruptions. Now, with monitoring, commercial aviation flights near, or over, Alaska are diverted when eruptions occur.
The Republican party needs credible leadership. Jindal does not make the cut.
Posted by: Merrick | February 25, 2009 1:56 PM
I'm not going to criticize anyone trying to bring a halt to the Obama communist utopia.
Stock market down every time Obama speaks.
Private business under attack daily by Obama.
Mortgage bust created solely by the government.
High unemployment.
Obama's first month in office outspends Iraq war, Afghanistan war, and Katrina.
Global Warming hoax rocketing forward.
Not one honest politician from Illinois yet.
Better wake up folks before its too late.
You have noticed the Democrats said they would stop Iraq if they had Congress. How did that work out?
Then they said all they needed was the Presidency. Out of Iraq yet?
Posted by: rick g | February 25, 2009 6:12 PM
If I can remember correctly when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the legislator,governor (at that time) and the mayor could not decide ahead of time to evacuate the citizens of New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast area. Katrina we Floridians are paying for your mistake with our high homeowners insurance cost. I really do not appreciate where you are coming from since Former Governor Bush gave you all great details to evacuate Lousiana. When you do not know the full scientific methods of Hurricanes and Valconoes, then how in the world can you make a statement in regards to take the funding. I would love some funding, can I have some?
Posted by: Michelle Cook | February 25, 2009 6:37 PM
He won't be the nominee if they have any brains left.
He's too easily "swiftboated" by just mentioning the state he's Guv of. He won't be able to do anything to clean it up.
Plus, if Dems really wanted to be mean, they would do a true swiftboat on him and tie him to Katrina & FEMA (even though he wasn't Guv then).
After all , in the last election a lot of voters thought the Replicans still controlled the Congress--which accounted for the very low approval rating and the fact that Dems picked up even more seats!
Ain't American politics wonderful?
Well, since Replicans invented swiftboating, only poetic justice to use it on them.
Which character in the Addams Family did Bobby Ray remind you of last night?
Posted by: ornery | February 26, 2009 4:50 AM
This story has now been proven to be a LIE.
Posted by: BC | February 26, 2009 10:44 AM
Hit the Enter key which posted my reply before I added the link to PROOF that Jindal is LYING about his story:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/24/23132/9395/253/701495
Posted by: BC | February 26, 2009 10:48 AM
As long as the Repugs get their money for wasteful death machines (the B-1 Bomber, Stealth Bomber, F-117, F-22 Raptor, Joint Strike Fighter) and the war to use them in, everything's cool. But build something that serves life (the Vegas-Anaheim maglev) or anything else related to life, and they have problems. What else is new?
Posted by: Neville A. Ross | September 30, 2009 12:36 AM