Bobby Jindal, dewonkified

WHEN he gave the Republican response to President Obama's speech to Congress this week, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal didn't come off as the future GOP standard-bearer. The reviews have been scorching: "weak," "wooden," "an earnest dork." And that's just what the conservative blogosphere is saying. Others have likened his slow, singsong diction to that of Kermit the Frog. There's even a Facebook group called "Bobby Jindal Is Kenneth the Page" - an allusion to a simple-minded, warbly voiced character on the NBC comedy "30 Rock."

But the fiasco wasn't all Jindal's fault. His main error was to take on an impossible task: appealing to an anxious public while upholding hoary Republican orthodoxies.

Who was that guy? Jindal came to prominence in Louisiana as an eager policy wonk. Now 37, the former McKinsey consultant took over the state's health department in his mid-20s. He has a reputation for talking fast, answering simple questions with 14-point plans, and reveling in the nuances of health reform. He has allied himself with social conservatives, but he has also made many admiring comments about Obama.

In his tryout as a spokesman for the national party, he aimed for folksy rather than cerebral - and overshot the mark. As for substance, he was reduced to repeating the usual platitudes against "government bureaucrats" and "dependence on government." Never mind that the suffering of his state during Hurricane Katrina, along with the influx of federal aid afterward, underscores the need for a creative, resourceful government in difficult times.

Jindal, widely touted as a future presidential candidate, may be a victim of his own ambitions. But when one of the Republicans' smartest rising stars can't articulate the party line without sounding like Mr. Rogers, then the party line is the problem.