By now, Gov. Bobby Jindal should hope he has given his last rebuttal speech. Like his first one, in February 2009, his latest, to the Republican National Committee last week in Charlotte, N.C., followed the party’s dashed hopes in another national election. For Jindal, at least, his was a better-received performance than the guffaws and ridicule that greeted the singsong delivery of his national debut. This time, instead of unnaturally slowing his rhythm, he let it rip in his customary rapid-fire fashion, even blowing through pauses for applause. The governor doesn’t need a speech coach. He needs a speech editor. The recent rebuttal, at 25 minutes, ran one and a half times longer than President Barack Obama’s second inaugural. Had he slowed to the cadence of the president’s address, he might still be talking. In content, Jindal spent more time rebutting the Republicans than the president. As he did in comments after the election, and again in a Washington speech on Sunday, he dished out the tough love, urging the GOP to stop being the “stupid party,” to reach for all voters instead of a percentage, and to quit insulting the intelligence of voters with dumbed-down slogans in 30-second commercials. It’s sound advice for both parties, in a civics-textbook way. But such is not the real point Jindal is driving home in these speeches. His more radical, compelling and, yes, self-serving message to Republicans is to turn away from Washington and the debate over who should control the federal government. Read the full column here.
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
