Widespread skepticism about the Louisiana governor’s chances.
AB Wire
The scale and volume of negative coverage Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — once a rising star the in Republican Party — received Wednesday, the day he announced his candidacy for the President of the United States, is unmatched in the annals of presidential politics.
It’s hard to recall the last instance when a major presidential candidate received such a resounding thumbs down on his big day.
Reporter after reporter and blogger and after blogger dismissed the chances of the Indian American, who is languishing at the very bottom of the pile in national polls, declaring his candidacy dead on arrival.
If the Jindal camp expected some glowing coverage at least for a day, it didn’t pan out that way. Even the reliably conservative National Review expressed huge skepticism about the governor’s chances:
[Jindal’s] star has fallen somewhat over the past two years, and he will have an uphill climb in a field that’s expected to expand to 16 major candidates. In national polls, Jindal barely scratches the surface, with at most one percent of Republican primary voters saying he would be their top pick. He doesn’t fare much better in polls of early primary states, where he has rarely broken the same one-percent barrier.
The day before he announced the candidacy, the Washington Post ran a profile by its India bureau chief Annie Gowen that highlighted Jindal’s uneasy relationship with the Indian American community.
A longtime family friend named Sumir Chehl recalls how, before attending Jindal’s primary-night victory party in 2003, she received a phone call from Jindal’s father asking her to wear Western dress for the event.
“He said that’s what his political advisers were saying,” said Chehl, who nonetheless wore a flowing top and pants common in Punjab. “It gave me the feeling that he was trying to disassociate from his heritage.” She said Indian dress was also discouraged for his 2008 inauguration.
Jindal says that message did not come from his camp: “People were welcome to wear whatever they wanted.”
Discouraged by a lack of engagement, some of Jindal’s early donors have faded away, according to Sanjay Puri, chairman of the U.S. India Political Action Committee. Jindal’s top-contributors list now includes such recognizable names as cosmetics mogul Georgette Mosbacher.
Suresh C. Gupta, a Potomac, Md., doctor, gave a fundraiser for Jindal’s first gubernatorial bid. But he said Jindal has actively tried to disassociate himself from the Indian American community in recent years.
There are many reasons why news media and political analysts think Jindal is unlikely to get any traction in 2016. His embrace of the far right elements and his failure to revive Louisiana’s economy are among them.
“Running to the right isn’t working for Bobby Jindal,” according to a Politico article titled “The Stupid Party’s Candidate.”
“Bobby Jindal’s pathetic presidential hopes: He wrecked Louisiana — and now he wants a job promotion,” Salon screamed.
Here are more sample headlines:
“Bobby Jindal was supposed to be ‘the next Ronald Reagan.’ Here’s what went wrong.” Yahoo! Politics
“Is Bobby Jindal Getting Started or Already Finished?” National Journal
“Bobby Jindal faces an uphill fight in the crowded 2016 field,” CNN.com
“Our Views: Bobby Jindal’s presidential address ‘short on substance, ‘devoid of specifics’” (Editorial), The New Orleans Advocate
The narrative has been written. Now the question is can Bobby Jindal overcome it?
3 Comments
This man has no political future. He was given a chance to prove himself at the the rebuttal to Obama’s speech. He proved that he has neither the charisma nor the skills to be elected to office. He was an utter failure in the rebuttal and he has fallen down the ladder since then. The only ones who would vote for him is his mother in law. He is too juvenile looking for a national office. He dresses like a cab driver and he has loser written all over him, With the race relations getting worse in the South, the voting block has changed. The Indian Americans contributors are fleeing away from him and the mainstream (that he identifies himself with as American) won’t touch him with a ten foot barge pole.
As someone who lives in Louisiana, let me assure you, Jindal’s campaign is not only dead on arrival but is dead on departure. The man is nuts.
And what would he have to do in order not to be “nuts” in your eyes?