Fresh in from the Washington Post today, we have news that Bobby Jindal, the Republican Governor of Louisiana, was never seriously vetted for the Vice President position. Yes, I know, you’re thinking “What, as opposed to Sarah Palin?” Apparently, however, this was done at his request.
Jindal was approached by McCain forces to gauge his interest in the vice presidency and told them he was not interested in being vetted due to his desire to continue on with his current job, to which he was elected just one year ago.
While the official reason that Jindal took his name out of contention was his lack of a desire to leave the Louisiana governorship, there was also real trepidation within his political inner circle that Jindal might wind up as the pick — McCain was attracted to his comprehensive health-care knowledge — and be caught up in what they believed to be a less-than-stellar campaign that could pin a loss on Jindal without much ability to change or control the direction of the contest.
Some fine strategery on his part, if true- though I don’t know that Jindal would have produced the epic fail that Palin did on McCain’s ticket. In fact, I’d wager that McCain/Jindal would have been more competitive than McCain/Palin in spades, and I don’t know that anyone would have held it against Bobby Jindal if the ticket lost. I don’t think that John Edwards lost the primaries because he was part of the losing ticket in 2004.
Of course, our cognitively dissonant friends on the right posit the opposite of what I have here- only Palin could have “survived” the stench of the losing campaign (though they do note, interestingly enough, that she has nothing to offer a national ticket except for her abortion views!). Not surprising- let’s hope that they keep thinking that way.
I’m not sure how Jindal would be received as a Republican candidate. Certainly, as much as they have staked their campaigning on running a continuation of the “Southern Strategy” for the last forty years, I am a bit skeptical. But I think, as a former Republican, that’s the only way the party can survive on a national level, especially going into the future- shedding the racist bullshit and focusing on actually, y’know, governing. Let’s hope that’s the case, anyway. While the Republicans getting their shit together may be “bad” for the Democratic party, it’ll be good for the country as a whole.
20 comments