Will this Campaign Help or Hurt Jindal?
October 29, 2008 2 Comments
Someone commented yesterday that the McCain campaign’s tactics have hurt potential 2012 contendor Bobby Jindal the most. While I am not a HUGE fan of Jindal, primarily for his stance on teaching Creationism, here is an interesting rebuttal from Ross Douthat:
I think this vastly, vastly overestimates the extent to which the attempt to “Otherize” Obama has been about race qua race (and racism qua racism), and vastly underestimates the extent to which it’s been about the way Obama’s name, ancestry and skin color have dovetailed with other aspects of his background – from his liberation-theology church to the academic-lefty and urban-machine milieu in which he spent much of his early political career – that the GOP would have tried to play up against any Democratic candidate (and especially in a year when the party didn’t have much else going for it). If anything, I think the way the McCain campaign has finished up – and the way the media has covered it – works to Jindal’s advantage in 2012: Conservatives are going to be extremely eager to prove that they only hate Obama because he’s a radical, not because they’re racist, and what better way to demonstrate that than to nominate a dark-skinned conservative with a funny-sounding name? Indeed, much of the current affection for Jindal among movement conservatives – and especially in talk-radio land – can be traced to precisely such a yearning for a conservative Obama: A multicultural prince who channels Ronald Reagan, and whose nomination would at least reduce the taint of racism that clings to the American Right.
Yeah, except Gov. Jindal’s success is as much about the VERY unique nature of Louisiana politics as it is about his being “non-white” and conservative at the same time. It’s also about running to replace the governor who got New Orleans flooded, and therefore got dumped by the Democratic machine. So I would say wait and see how he does running the state, and running for reelection before you promote him to Republican standard bearer in 2012.
And before you criticize my take, know this – I grew up in Baton Rouge at the same time he did and so I know a few things about the mileau in which he came to be a politician. It’s NOT anything like any place else.
As I said, I’m not a HUGE fan of Jindal’s. I don’t like his stance on Creationism and he sounds waaaay too much like Reagan. I don’t really want us taking two steps back in that respect. I also think nominating him will be seen as pandering in an effort to to combat Obama’s minority status.