Posted by
FeargalX on Friday, November 14, 2008 7:42:52 PM
I cannot figure out why Bobby Jindal is being touted as the next best Republican candidate for President. It appears this is a racial pandering decision of the Republican party. If that is what they want to stand for, why not just vote for Democrats instead.
Jindal is only 37 years old -- and has been a governor for under a year. People who talk about him being a great governor are being ridiculously presumptive -- he may be great, good, fair, bad or terrible. His track record has not been established yet.
If Jindal is elected in 2012, he will be 2 years younger than the youngest elected president in American history (JFK). Again, it is tougher to get elected at such a young age. More troubling for me is that he appears to just be a smart young conservative -- there are some other smart young conservatives in all sorts of posts. Why Jindal then? If the Republicans feel they need to prove they are not racist by selecting a minority -- forget it -- they are done. The Republicans have tried this before -- against Ed Rendell and against Obama -- both were disasters.
In 8 years, Jindal would still be (I think) either the 2nd or 3rd youngest elected president in history. At that point, he will be a little bit more seasoned -- and he will be more of a known quantity.
People were first suggesting that he was a great governor this Spring -- when he had been a governor for only a few months.
In contrast, Palin actually had accomplished an amazing amount of things very early on as governor -- and had taken on the Republican party. Palin had defeated two very powerful important Alaskan leaders in her run for governor -- that was very, very impressive.
Palin has pretty much been destroyed by the media. Unfortunately, this is probably why she simply would not work as a candidate.
No matter who they pick, I doubt the Republicans will win in 2012. By that point, we will have many, many more Hispanic (mostly Mexican) voters in states like Nevada, Colorado and Arizona. Those states will probably be out of reach in a short period of time (just like California is now). People forget that California once was a very competitive state for Republicans. With massive immigration, things change.
Unlike what happened to the Liberal party in the U.K. (where they were replaced by the Labor party as the #2 party -- and were able to begin to win the House of Commons shortly afterwards) -- I don't see a 3rd party emerging.
I do seriously think conservatives (all but neo-conservatives who are responsible for the destruction of the party) would be better off if they just joined the Democratic party.