With Senator John McCain the “presumptive” presidential nominee for the Republican Party, there is a lot of speculation as to who McCain will pick as his vice presidential running mate. Amongst the field of possible running mates, a surprising possible choice is recently elected, Indian-American, Governor Louisiana ‘Bobby’ Jindal of Louisiana, as reported in “McCain’s Surprise: Could GOP’s Bayou Gov. Get Veepstakes Slot?:”
“…For Jindal, gubernatorial assension into the national spotlight came in October following a 53 percent victory in the Louisiana governor’s race making the 36-year-old former two-term congressman the nation’s first Indian-American governor…”Conservatives really, really like him, which would give McCain a touchback to that base,” said Dowd, a former strategist for the Bush White House. “He’s the governor, he’s young, he’s the next generation of leader.”…”The beauty is,”…, “is he’s not just a good, strong conservative, but he’s also incredibly competent and with a history in some domestic issues, like health care, which are going to be front and center next fall.”
He is so much beloved by the conservative base, that even radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been calling Jindal “the next Ronald Reagan.” Now as much as I love the idea of having an Indian-American as a vice presidential candidate and McCain running mate, Jindal is barely old enough to even have qualified to run for president (which is 35). Additionally, serving 2 terms in the House and just recently becoming Governor doesn’t exactly inspire confidence to be commander in chief. Jindal has already indicated that he has no interest in being a running mate.
On another note, The Wall Street Journal on Saturday does a nice write-up on Jindal in “Jindal’s Progress” talking about his swift moves clean up Louisiana politics through ethics reform and rebuilding the state’s infrastructure. If you are a Republican (I am not), Jindal is definitely an up-and-comer in the Republican Party.
