Governor Jindal: Restore GOP ideals
WASHINGTON - For their first official response to a speech by President Obama, Republicans counterprogrammed with a young, cerebral newcomer, able to cite his own multigenerational immigrant narrative and summon from it a "Yes, we can"-style catch phrase.
"As I grew up, my mom and dad taught me the values that attracted them to this country - and they instilled in me an immigrant's wonder at the greatness of America," Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, the country's first South Asian state chief executive, said last night from Baton Rouge.
"As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my dad. Growing up in India, he had seen extreme poverty," the 37-year-old Jindal continued. "And as we walked through the aisles, looking at the endless variety on the shelves, he would tell me: 'Bobby, Americans can do anything.' I still believe that to this day."
The elevation of the first-term governor to the role of opposition voice, even if for only one night, suggests an acknowledgment of the minority party's peculiar quandary. Even as they have found new confidence in challenging Obama's agenda, Republicans remain vexed by the political power of his charisma, and have few established figures able to command a national audience to argue that Democratic policies are "irresponsible," as Jindal put it last night.
"Our party got away from its principles," Jindal said, repeatedly citing the response to Hurricane Katrina as an example of government's failures.
"You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline, and personal responsibility. Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust - and rightly so."
Jindal was eyed by John McCain's presidential campaign last year as a potential running mate, but took himself out of contention. He has since been a leading critic of McCain's campaign tactics, saying that the Arizona senator didn't offer enough positive ideas on the economy. That has encouraged many to see Jindal as a party savior and a promising presidential challenger in 2012.
"Bobby Jindal represents everything that's great about the American dream, the American story, and what it means to put Republican ideas into action," said Phil Musser, a strategist who previously ran the Republican Governors Association.
The party has long held such a crush on its governors, describing them as hands-on managers who deal pragmatically with concerns closest to voters. In recent days, as congressional Republicans have complained that their fiscal views were ignored by Democratic leaders in drafting the $787 billion stimulus package, Jindal has become a national conservative hero for announcing that his state would refuse some of its money from the bill.
A handful of conservative governors, primarily from the South, have followed Jindal's lead, saying that they too were exploring the possibility of turning down some federal funds.
Following McCain's loss, Republican leaders have wrestled with competing explanations for their recent failures and differing prescriptions for moving forward. Jindal, political observers note, is one of the few figures able to synthesize several of them: He embodies a return to both the party's ideological purity (he is a religious conservative) and reputation for competence (he is a technocrat with experience in healthcare policy), while preaching inclusion.
"What makes him so appealing to Republicans is he's an Indian-American representing a Southern state," said Louisiana State University professor Robert Mann, who evoked the party's recent election of its first African-American leader. "A lot of it is the same reason they elected Michael Steele their chair: They're looking to push out in front any bit of diversity they can dredge up."
