Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was firmly in the spotlight last week as the Republican presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain campaigned in the state for the fourth time, and The Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy story which said that many in the GOP are tantalized by the similarities that Jindal has to the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.
Jindal got as much press coverage as did McCain on his two-day tour of Louisiana last week. The Los Angeles Times reported a former governor of Louisiana, Charles “Buddy” Roemer, saying during one of the campaign stops at a town hall meeting where both McCain and Jindal were present: “He’s (McCain) encouraged – he’s allowed, he’s hinted that his vice president might be in this room.”
McCain praised Jindal, who recently spent a weekend with his wife, Supriya, at the McCain’s weekend retreat outside Sedona, Arizona.
McCain credited Jindal with cutting taxes five times in Louisiana, reducing regulations and creating “probably the strongest and most effective ethical and lobbying reforms in the United States of America.”
In a sign of their growing friendship, he even ribbed Jindal about his efforts to woo his wife, who McCain called the “brains of the outfit”, noting she wisely refused Jindal’s first request for a date when they attended high school together in Baton Rouge.
When one town hall questioner asked McCain whether Jindal was a possible No. 2, he replied: “I believe that Gov. Jindal is the next generation of leadership, not just of the Republican Party, but of America. What he’s been able to accomplish in his 36 years on earth has been quite remarkable. And it’s a great American success story. So I know he’s earned a place in the future of the Republican Party and our country.”
The Times noted that McCain has been using that exact same line about “earning a place’ in the party on other possible veeps, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
MSNBC also noted an anecdote where Jindal came to McCain’s aid when a woman asked him about education in the state. Jindal described a proposed teachers’ bill of rights and outlined some of the states’ policies for reform.
After waiting for the audience’s applause to die down, McCain said, “Well, I’ve gotta take him with me wherever I go.”
WSJ reported that at a press conference McCain praising Jindal, said: “The governor has been able to reach across the aisle and get things done for the people of Louisiana, help the folks in New Orleans in the recovering from the storm,” adding, “that would be something I could show the American people as a way that people from both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat, can sit down and work together.”
WSJ said that Jindal has succeeded in the state at gaining the backing of social conservatives and pro-business fiscal hawks, while appealing to moderate suburbanites – the formula many Republicans believe McCain must achieve to win the presidency.
It also laid down his ultra conservative ideology, including on abortion and immigration, as well as on creationism.
And as Jindal rises in stature nationally, he is beginning to take potshots at Obama too.
The USA Today in a blog noted how Jindal said in a interview to CNN that Obama is “clearly a great speaker,” but John McCain has “actually spent his career delivering change.”
Jindal said McCain has the “best experience, the best qualifications and the best ideas.”
