November 12, 2008

No, This Is Not Evidence Bobby Jindal Is Smart

He is smart. Very smart. But the idea that not wanting to be a vice presidential nominee is a brilliant political move is freakin' nuts. Jack Kemp, Joe Lieberman, Lloyd Bentsen, John Edwards - none of these men were hurt by running on a ticket that didn't win the White House. Instead in every case it increased their profile. And of course if lightning had struck they'd have had the inside track to the presidency (well, maybe not Bentsen given his age, but otherwise ...). Jindal's team is spinning here, and for whatever conservatives at The Atlantic are buying the spin.

Now if he didn't want to be vetted because he didn't want others in the party to know his darkest secrets - now that is smart. But that's not the argument at hand.

Posted by armand at November 12, 2008 12:51 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics


Comments

I feel like you're missing some of the point here: the claim -- and it sounds plausible to me insofar as, long before the convention, serious and honest people could see that McCain was a problem nominee for the party and an awful campaigner with a high probability of self-destructing by trying to serve several mutually exclusive masters within the fractured GOP -- is not against taking a nod generally, but that Jindal may have decided that by going too soon, and with this particular nominee, he'd be betting against the house.

Don't get me wrong: Palin will probably mount a half-way credible run for 2012 -- assuming she can trick Alaska in 2010 into believing she gives a shit about anyone other than herself and won't be governing more or less exclusively from Iowa, New Hampshire, and a soundstage at Fox News -- after a couple of years of elocution lessons and the application of some sandpaper to the edges that appear every time she wanders off script, but she probably didn't do herself any huge favors by running with McCain. Sure, it made her relevant, but she would have been instantly relevant in 2012 without this bid as an attractive chief executive who caters to the hate mongers on the far right. Now she has much much higher name recognition, but about as much negative baggage as it is possible to collect in a mere 8 or 9 weeks (although in fairness, her baggage is all Vuitton, care of the Republican Party, a pile she may never be able to dig herself out from under.

Anyway, if the idea is that Jindal, a rabid movement conservative if I'm not mistaken, calculatedly took a pass on the ideologically shifty, electorally weak McCain without even seriously considering it, especially in light of his new governship and his striking youth even in an election featuring Obama, specifically because it was McCain, and that doing so was a pretty damned good idea . . . well, I have no trouble seeing it that way, though of course I have no way of knowing.

And now I'm taking today's outrageously long sentences and getting back to work, where people are foolish enough to pay me for sentences like these.

Posted by: moon at November 12, 2008 02:41 PM | PERMALINK

Yes, Palin has masses of LVMH baggage - but it's because she bought it (figuratively and otherwise), not because McCain ran a poor campaign.

My point is that being on the national ticket gives you an unequaled level of exposure, to the nation, the media, the party and donors, and unless you make a giant mess of it, it's always better to get that exposure. And beyond that, given the Republican party's tradition of primogeniture (more or less) it's a huge leg-up to become next-in-line. Even given her disasterous poll numbers Palin is still discussed in a way that Jindal or Pawlenty are not discussed - and it's b/c she was along for the ride for the last 2 and a half months.

Unless you think you are going to make egregious mistakes on national tv, I just don't see any down side to being the veep nominee. There is no tradition of running on a poorly performing ticket tainting the #2 on that ticket. And even if there was I think you could make an exception for the 2008 McCain ticket b/c the McCain campaign was so thoroughly biography driven. There was no big idea or message that would wait down Palin or Jindal in the future.

Posted by: Armand at November 12, 2008 03:42 PM | PERMALINK
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