Watch Out for Bobby Jindal in 2012

In what’s shaping up to be a major year of realignment in American politics, there’s been a lot of talk recently about who’s going to grab the reigns of the Republican Party after the GOP suffers what could be a crushing defeat up and down the ballot next Tuesday.  According to a poll of leading voices of the blogosphere conducted by the website PoliticsHome.com, the GOP’s savior could very well be Lousiana governor Bobby Jindal.  Ever since he won the governorship in Louisiana, I’ve wondered what Bobby Jindal’s plans are for his political future.  He was circulated widely as a potential running mate for McCain; he even won the liking of Rush Limbaugh, who had Jindal as his preferred VP pick.  He’s built up a reputation for himself (rightly or not) as more of a reformer than a true conservative partisan.  And as a second generation Indian-American, Jindal must view himself as the likeliest of a small handful of current Indian-American politicians to represent his demographic for the first time on national stage, an honor that can be motivating in and of itself.  So there’s no doubt that he’s taking his position very seriously down there in Louisiana.  While I wouldn’t bet that he’ll be in the running in 2012, I wouldn’t for a second ignore the potential of a Bobby Jindal primary candidacy.  I’d first be interested in seeing how the post-Nov. 4 infighting plays out in the GOP.  There will be a struggle at capturing the heart and soul of the Republican Party, and it’s going to be an ugly battle between the theocons and Georgetown cocktail conservatives.  I suspect that Jindal has a good shot at making himself known in this fight.  As a Rhodes scholar, he’s extremely intelligent, and combined with his conservative credentials, he can approach the party with a Gingrich-like appeal and argue that the GOP has lost its way and needs to reinvigorate itself with new, bold ideas without compromising its core values, just as he did in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina.  If I were a Democratic strategist, I would start drafting out plans now to pre-emptively stop a not-so-unimaginable Jindal run for the presidency.

Update: Jindal says he won’t run in 2012

Americanism and why the GOP just doesn’t get it

It’s been the strategy of the GOP for years now: convince the American citizenry that they are somehow more American than their liberal adversaries. This strategy has taken a somewhat different turn during this campaign, however. For instance, Gov. Palin harps on her “small-town” values and insinuates that somehow people who live in small-towns (ostensibly, like herself) are the “real” Americans who possess a better set of core values. However, in doing so, she contradicts the premise of what Americanism is really all about: regardless of one’s background, religion, credo, etc, we can each have an independent and meaningful voice in our democracy. Her argument implicitly creates a hierarchy, bifurcating America into those with “real” values and elites (presumably a Barack Obama) who apparently have a different set of unamerican values. This argument has been furthered by Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who recently announced her proposal to investigate whether or not a given congressperson is “American” or not. How she intends to achieve such a feat is beyond me, but I’ll hold that Ms. Bachmann is in fact the real anti-American for even questioning the patriotism of her fellow public servants without cause. This generation of unwarranted and unfounded fear, if truly realized, would put America in a time machine, sending us back to the days of McCarthyism, except this time the victims wouldn’t be potential communists, but instead those who say “pal around with terrorists.”

Understand this, ALL of this anti-American baiting is being done with one goal in mind, to somehow implicate Sen. Obama as part of some anti-American scheme. Let’s get some facts straight: the man grew up in Kansas and Hawaii with a single mother and his grandparents, worked diligently in order to attend schools like Columbia and Harvard, and has been a public servant for the large majority of his adult life — every part of his experience reflects the essence of what it means to be an American. To imply that somehow a person who moves around from college to college and then works as a sportscaster for a local TV station, only to eventually become the Gov. of Alaska is somehow MORE American than Obama is both absurd and offensive. Both stories are compelling and praiseworthy, but BOTH are inherently American. The Republicans have always and will continue to outwardly question how “American” their liberal foes truly are, but after this election, I’d advise them to look at themselves in the mirror and answer this question: what kind of American do you see?

Sarah Palin = STILL Clueless

About 2 months ago Sarah Barracuda was on CNBC and gave what she referred to in her debate as a “lame joke” about the responsibilities (or lack thereof) of the VP.   After seven weeks of cramming and regurgitating lines campaigning, not content to be outdone by the average junior high civics student, she’s set the bar a couple of grades lower:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Since when does the VP work on crafting policy in the Senate?  It’s official – Sarah Palin is about as qualified to be VP as a 3rd GRADER!  If I were a Republican I’d be thoroughly embarrassed that MY party chose this airhead to be #2.  Pathetic.

Why I Think McCain Has Some Form of Dementia

And what’s an Asian hottie doing in Western PA at a McCain rally?  Why is it that he’s always got hotties around him???

Colin Powell Endorses Obama for President

My favorite part of his endorsement:

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

Moderate Republicans like Powell, Chuck Hagel, and Susan Collins represent the future of the GOP if McCain is to lose this election. The narrow minded bigotry that has come to define the modern Republican Party is on the verge of being thoroughly rejected by the American public, and until they come to terms with the obvious reality that their fringe beliefs are not shared by a majority of Americans, they’re destined to lose power for a generation or more. In the words of Dick Cheney, the GOP is in “its final throes.”

McCain’s Losing Strategy

With less than 4 weeks to go till the election, the economy in turmoil, 3 debates passed, and McCain’s poll numbers stuck in the low-mid 40s, it’s difficult to see McCain winning this thing.  Coming out of their convention, the McCain/Palin ticket enjoyed a sizable post-convention bounce and all but closed the gap Obama held over his Republican rival for the entire summer, even opening up a significant lead in some polls.  One month later, though, that bounce has completely been erased, and Obama has not only reclaimed the advantage, but has also built upon it.  As the financial markets have tumbled, the Democratic ticket has rallied a majority of Americans behind them, with some polls showing Obama/Biden in the 50s.  It’s fair to say that the news cycle has been pretty much hijacked by the state of the economy, and every day that the media covers the economic crisis is one less day of positive coverage for McCain.  His numbers seem to be falling in concert with the free-falling Dow, and with time running out, his campaign is desperately scrambling to come up with a way to distract voters.  Things are not looking good for McMaverick.

It’s true that 4 weeks can be a lifetime in an election, and anyone who prematurely calls this thing for Obama would be ignoring the realities of a 24-hr, 7-days-a-week presidential campaign.  But with the number of opportunities at a game-changer dwindling down to zero (there’s only 1 debate left, and it’s more than likely going to focus exclusively on the financial crisis), his campaign is left with very few options.  After the House passed the bailout bill last Friday, the McCain camp signaled that it was positioning itself to “turn the page on the economy” and begin a barrage of negative assaults on Barack Obama’s character.  On Monday we heard Sarah Palin on the stump attempt to raise an aura of “mystery” around a candidate whose middle name is Hussein and who once served on a community board in Chicago with an individual who plotted a terrorist attack on US soil when Obama was 8 years old.  Additionally, the RNC filed an unsubstantiated complaint with the FEC to raise doubts about whether the Obama campaign has taken any contributions from foreigners, hoping to dig up a random “Ahmed” or “Rahim” as evidence that Obama pals around with brown people who hate our freedoms.

In the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, this is what the McCain campaign is gambling on voters buying into.  Time after time, we’ve noticed that the McCain campaign has a penchant for following dramatic, attention-grabbing tactics whose chances at successfully changing the subject of the campaign are largely unknown and untested.  If Obama is victorious on Nov 4, when the pundits look back on this election, it will be this high-risk, high-reward strategy of “razzle dazzle” that they’ll blame.  It seems as if Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt are simply tone-deaf to the current times and are running an anachronistic campaign that just doesn’t fit well with 2008.  Let’s list the examples:

It first started back in June, when Obama officially locked up the Democratic nomination and became the first African-American to become candidate for president from a major party.  Rather than be congratulatory, or just stay on the sidelines, John McCain gave an awkward speech to a crowd consisting of almost all elderly white folks about how Obama is “not  change we can believe in” with a backdrop of bright green, giving him the appearance that Atrios accurately described as “the cottage cheese in a lime jello salad.“  It was just a bad time to go on the attack.  The campaign hadn’t even officially begun, and the country was more tuned into the fact that a black man would be representing the biggest political party in the country.

But that awkward moment didn’t really matter much.  The next month and a half were pretty dull, but then came the conventions, and the selection of the VPs.  The Obama campaign was riding a post-convention bounce, with a record number of Americans watching his acceptance speech.  Then, out of nowhere Sarah Palin was rolled out onto the national stage with a massive PR push to cast the newly minted GOP ticket as the real “change” agent in the election.  To their credit, the McCain campaign made a great deal of headway in the polls; they enjoyed a healthy post-convention bounce and closed or even surpassed Obama in every poll metric.  All of the sudden, a race that had been a given for the Democrats was in a dead-heat, and the de-energized, demoralized GOP base was on fire.  It wasn’t a matter of time, though, before all those Palin/convention gains were utterly lost due to Palin’s poor performances in media interviews.  She became the laughingstock of late night comedy, and soon the majority of Americans came to the conclusion that, while she’s folksy and attractive, she just wasn’t qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.  Then came the financial crisis.

With one investment firm/bank after another declaring bankruptcy, the McCain campaign struggled to find footing.  At one point, the tone-deaf McCain still uttered the words “The fundamentals of our economy our strong.”  The next day he changed his mind and said we’re in deep trouble.  A week passed, and it was clear that McCain’s poll numbers were dropping as precipitously as the economy.  So what was the campaign’s response?  Another bold, dramatic razzle-dazzle act: suspend the campaign and refuse to participate in the first debate until Congress had come up with a solution to the crisis.  McCain packed his bags and headed to Washington like a hero hoping to save the town from burning down.  It turns out that not only did he not play any major role in drafting the final bailout bill, but he also ended up showing up for that debate that he promised he wouldn’t attend if there wasn’t a deal on Capitol Hill, which there wasn’t.  The net result of all this: the man with the years of experience and “scars to show” for fighting for his country, actually appeared erratic, out of touch, and unsure of himself.

And now this week, the McCain campaign is rolling out web ads trying to stir up a controversy involving Obama’s associations with William Ayers.  They’re calling Obama a liar who lacks the courage to lead and only promises empty rhetoric.  This is the state of affairs within the McCain campaign.  They’ve tanked in the polls, and what the voters just want to know who is going to help them stay in their homes, keep their 401(k)’s, and turn this economy around — issues that their campaign admits they don’t want to talk about.  And therein lies the real shortcoming of their campaign – not that voters are suddenly in complete favor of the Democratic Party’s platform to help shore up the economy, but that the other side offers no solutions in an election season that is all about solutions, not sideshows.  It’s as if McCain’s people are stuck in 2004.  Four years ago, it made sense to energize the base with a VP candidate who mocks intellectuals and scoffs at “east coast liberals.”  Four years ago, it made sense to strongly back a war that the majority of the American public supported.  Four years ago, personal attacks on a candidate who refused to engage in a mudfight made sense.  It’s no wonder that the people running McCain’s campaign are alumni of the Rove/Atwater school of electoral politics.  To their dismay, this is not their season, and absent some major catastrophic game-changing event (a terrorist attack?  Obama has a black baby?), the chickens will come home to roost on November 4.

Post debate analysis

All I could think of during the VP debate was Tina Fey responding to Amy Poehler’s observation, “Forgive me, Mrs. Palin, but it seems to me that when cornered you become increasingly adorable. Is that fair to say.” Fey responds, “I don’t know is it?” followed by her busting out the fake hand pistols and making cute gun noises. Her comments reeked of gimmickyness. Every time Palin spoke in her odd vernacular, my blood pressure slowly rose, much like the “barometer” she continuously referred to. “Say it ain’t so Joe,” “doggone it,” “there ya go again,” are just some examples of her unsophisticated and slightly troubling manner of speaking (not to mention the incessant winking). While some Americans may relate to her down home meat and potatoes mannerisms, my gut feeling is that many will be slightly unsettled by her nonchalant approach to so many crucial issues. Tonight, she simply demonstrated her ability to regurgitate GOP talking points, buzz words, and tag lines, but she could rarely take the conversation farther than that. Biden continuously seemed able and ready to pounce on her unfounded allegations, leaving her without much ground to stand on. She attempted to relate to the average American and provide her support for those needing help around the kitchen table, but none of her policy stances seemed to line up. The moderator would repeatedly ask Palin if she agreed with a certain issue, and all she would say is “Yes, I agree with (fill in the exact words of the moderator).” In addition to not expounding upon her supposed policy stances, she often completely dodged questions, opting to speak about another topic like energy.

She is no doubt a charismatic figure and may well energize a certain cohort of the base (as a side note, some evangelicals may be disappointed by her newly minted liberal opinion on gay unions), but the majority of Americans will no doubt still question whether or not she passes the basic VP litmus test: is she ready to step in as President? A significant portion of Americans will still feel that Palin lacks the necessary knowledge, credibility, and quite frankly, intelligence to lead this country. Not only is she ignorant, but she’s blissfully and confidently ignorant. She doesn’t know much, but she seems to wholeheartedly believe that she knows exactly what she is talking about. Oh yea, she also says “nucular.” Remind you of someone?

Some thoughts on the bailout

1.) Partisanship is poison. We are in the midst of the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression, and a bill that could have prevented the largest drop in the history of the DOW did not garner enough votes in the House (largely) because 2/3 of Republicans voted against it. Why? The prevailing reason (as elucidated in a press conference by leading Republicans post the vote) was that a speech by Nancy Pelosi was so partisan that she allegedly ruined the legislative process. Let me get this straight. A significant cohort of Republicans prevented passage of one of the most crucial and time-sensitive bills in years because their feelings were hurt? Keep in mind, the content of the bill remained unchanged, and members of Congress knew full well that the market had priced in the fact that the bill would pass, and because Pelosi’s speech was mean, the Republicans put their knee-jerk partisan reactions AHEAD of the very people they were elected to protect, which gets me to my next point.

2.) The GOP is a mess. The initial bill put forward in the House was SUPPORTED by President Bush, his Treasury Secretary, and a majority of the Democratic Party, yet the Republicans in the House voted 2-1 against the bill. Republicans came out vocally criticizing their own President and his Treasury Sec. for espousing a misguided approach with regard to the bailout.

3.) John McCain does not have the temperament to serve as President. He speaks to Sen. Obama (note: Obama called him first) about the possibility of suspending their campaigns, but then pulls a surprise by suspending his own campaign without notice. He then unsuspends his campaign to attend the debate, while later attempting to exert leadership with regard to the bailout bill. Wait, it gets better. He takes a presumptuous victory lap, praising his own leadership abilities and criticizing Sen. Obama for “standing on the sidelines,” all while the bill that he apparently exerted influence over fails to pass the House because members of his OWN party were not on board. Sen. McCain is notorious for being a maverick. I would redefine maverick as irrational, rash, and overly reactive. Sure, he preaches “country first,” but as evidenced by his choice of Sarah Palin and his recent political theatrics, his campaign slogan seems to have lost its meaning.