There have been a lot of talking heads and columnists spouting off about Gov. Bobby Jindal this week, as presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney gets closer to naming a running mate. Jindal is widely considered to be on Romney’s short list; and speculation about the likelihood of Jindal being asked spiked with Romney’s fundraising visit to Baton Rouge on Monday and Jindal’s travels to Ohio Wednesday to stump for Romney. But if you think you’ve heard every take on the case for and against Jindal as vice president, you might want to check out Esquire lead political blogger Charles P. Pierce’s latest entry. Titled “The Exorcist and the Libraries: Your VP Contender,” Pierce’s blog dredges up a 1994 article Jindal wrote for the New Oxford Review—in which Jindal recalls a religious experience of a friend he witnessed that many interpreted as an exorcism—to slam Jindal for his administration’s recent cut of state funding for libraries. “In recent weeks, ‘Bobby’ has worked hard to exorcise the evil spirit of Ben Franklin from the cities and towns of Louisiana,” Pierce writes. “There is nothing I can think of that’s less American than deciding that some people are just too poor for us to provide them with knowledge to which they have a right as free people. And, of course, ‘Bobby’ is the guy who’s more than willing to shovel carloads of public money into whackadoo Christianist diploma mills, and charter ‘schools’ that have gymnasiums, but no libraries.” Read the full column here.
Today’s poll question: How often do you visit a public library?
