Watch Out for Bobby Jindal in 2012
Posted by gopinder on October 30, 2008
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
