Bobby Jindal -- Change you can believe in.
By Erick Posted in State Politics — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The contrast between Barack Obama and Bobby Jindal could not be more stark. On the campaign trail this year, Obama serves up messages of hope and change. Last year, running for Governor of Louisiana, Jindal did the same. But Obama’s hope and change consists of platitudes. Jindal’s hope and change was premised on detailed plans and policy roadmaps to move people forward, get Louisiana on the road to recovery, and end the boom-bust economic cycles. Entering his fourth month in office, Jindal’s change has already proved to be change we can believe in.
Governor Jindal is a master of new media. To demonstrate the point, I was among a number of bloggers invited to dinner at the Governor’s Mansion last week for a mostly off the record chat. As we sat around the table, Jindal shared some of his ideas and his vision for Louisiana. To hear Jindal talk, you appreciate how rare a breed of politician he is -- a policy wonk who can relate the policies to people’s pocketbooks.
“We did a survey of business leaders before entering office and found that the top three issues for them were ethics, taxes, and workforce. That helped us build our agenda,” the Governor said. Almost immediately after his swearing in, Jindal called a special session of the Louisiana Legislature to push through an ethics reform package. Getting almost everything he wanted from the session, Louisiana went from being one of the bottom 5 states in the nation on government ethics to the top state in the nation, according to several public interest watch dog groups. (As amazing as it sounds, before this year there was no prohibition in Louisiana against state legislators doing business with the state, nor were there significant disclosure requirements for elected officials and lobbyists.)
Jindal related the story of a plant manager from north Louisiana who approached him on the campaign trail with a list of taxes his business paid in Louisiana that were paid no where else. The man reminded the governor that his plant, the largest employer in his parish, is in annual danger of closure. “He looked at me,” Governor Jindal said, “and he says, ‘Governor, because Louisiana taxes new equipment purchases, the newest equipment in my plant is older than the oldest equipment in any of my company’s other plants.’” As soon as the legislature concluded its special session on ethics reforms, Jindal called them right back into session to deal with this issue.
Read on . . .
Many newspaper reporters across the state were stunned a Louisiana Governor would actually govern on the same issues on which he campaigned, and they were even more startled that the Louisiana legislature passed all eleven of the Governor’s tax initiatives, mostly by near unanimous votes. The only controversial bill was legislation to give tax deductions to parents who home school their children, yet even it passed.
As Louisiana enters spring, the legislature prepares its return for its annual general session. Gov. Jindal, likewise, is preparing phase three of his initial legislative plans. It will center on what he knows will be controversial legislation, pitting him against teachers unions and creating some new allies for him in the legislature, while driving some traditional allies into the opposition. School choice and performance pay for teachers will be at the forefront of his agenda.
According to sources close to Gov. Jindal, the governor recognizes he is in for a fight against teachers unions, those opposed to parochial schools, those opposed to school choice in general, and assorted other groups. Nonetheless, he passionately believes in the issue and thinks it is necessary. Likewise, some of the same groups opposed to school choice will be opposed to Gov. Jindal’s other big idea, tying teacher pay raises to performance instead of tenure.
The governor will also push an innovative reform to train Louisiana workers. He wants to push forward with a plan to put small businesses in charge of vocational education in Louisiana. With this reform, Louisiana would promise to re-train workers for free if the workers are not job skilled on day one of their job.
Bobby Jindal’s plans have been quite ambitious. Fortunately for him, in addition to Louisiana craving the change he promised and is delivering on, legislative term limits, passed years ago by the legislature, but delayed for a decade in implementation, finally went into effect. Sixty percent of the State House of Representatives are freshman legislators. They are not wedded to the old ways. They are not skeptical or antagonistic toward reform. They have no pre-existing FBI investigative files. They want success.
There is one big issue left for Bobby Jindal -- whether he might consider being John McCain’s Vice Presidential nominee. “No,” replied one advisor. Jindal himself has repeatedly been asked the question. While flattered, he too understands he committed to Louisiana and Louisiana committed to him. The vice presidency is not an option for Bobby Jindal in 2008.
Cross posted at Human Events
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
I haven't weighed in on Jindal because before I started reading about him here at RS I knew very little about the man, but from what I've read, I can sympathize with the people who have suggested him for the Vice Presidency.
In the end, though, his advisor is right, and Jindal is right -- he has work to do in Louisiana and he needs to get that work started and completed before anyone starts talking about the Presidential ticket. Getting where you're going without a record of accomplishment is something that Barack Obama trades on, and I know Jindal is no Barack Obama.
Imagine what it will be like when Jindal can run for the presidency and point to 4-8 or more years of genuine reform and tangible success in Louisiana...it will be magnificent to have a candidate like that.
Louisiana.
That would be like a candidate from Illinois running on a record of cleaning up Chicago ... instead of having to pretend he wasn't part of the problem.
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Gone 2500 years, still not PC.
Jindal will seem as good as he is only when you don't feel the need to compare or tie him to Barack's star (falling or rising, as you choose) when you write a diary about him.
This country would be a much better place.
Go Bobby!
I think we can officially start a Draft Bobby 2016 effort now [banking on McCain winning and serving eight years]
Fighting for conservatism one day at a time.
He will be able to win the presidency in '16 on his own. I hope he achieves everything he has set out to do.
Tim Schieferecke
His leadership is apparent but I am also proud of the many citizen supporters and civic leaders that have gotten behind him. It's one thing to run on change, its quite another to truly inspire people to act on it, especially in Louisiana. We can root all we want for Bobby as a Republican rising star, but we also have to root for the nameless and faceless folks that are finally giving voice and action to the problems facing the state (like that plant owner). Speaking up has been half the battle down there, so I am proud that people finally feel like someone is listening.
While right after Katrina there was a surge of enthusiasm, energy had wained in the years after as the tall task of actually rehabbing the state became apparent. A younger generation of politically entitled and financially powerful elite had made their move and it seemed that things would settle back into place.
Fortunately, Jindal has been able to keep those truly committed inspired and on task resulting in a real movement to transform the state. As the daughter of a Louisiana native, I am proud to call it my adoptive home and look forward to rolling up my sleeves once Bobby is ready to take on Washington.
The reason why Governor Jindal shouldn't be tarnished with having that Illinois senator's name mentioned on the same page--let alone in the same sentence--is that Governor Jindal's change is merely incidental to his pursuit of reforms by prescribed policy that he advertised during his campaign.
The other kind of "change" being sold is nothing more than adolescent raging against the "system" by losers seeking to re-roll the dice in hopes of being on top next time.
When Jindal has fixed Louisiana, his story of competence and success will write itself. That will be the time to knock the concept of incompetent and corrupt governance to the ground and stomp on it until all that remains is a bloody pulp.
Why wait for '16.
1. McCain, 2. Thompson, 3. Giuliani, 4. Romney
And he'll be a much better candidate when he has accomplishments to pair with his promise.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
breaks their promises to their constituents. Bobby promised to reform LA. Let's let him do his job. It's far more important than he could do as Veep.
Fighting for conservatism one day at a time.
I'm voting for McCain, but I don't want Jindal on his ticket. Senator McCain needs to find someone else that he won't scar with his more moderate leanings. Jindal is a rising star. I view McCain simply as a needed buffer president that will prevent the Bolsheviks from taking over America. It would be great if he had someone like Cheney who doesn't want the top spot, and will move aside for our champion in '12 or '16.
Tim Schieferecke
...if Jindal were to be the Republican VP nominee in 2008. That would widely be regarded by LA rank and file voters as the worst kind of betrayal, and with terrible timing.
Let the man govern. If we climb from #50 to #35 on some "good" lists (and fall from #1 to #15 on some "bad" lists), it will look like he hung the moon.
He sits for reelection in 2011. The time to talk about higher office will be, oh, about the time of his second inaugural in January 2012. Until then, puh-leese.
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa
I can't wait to vote for him for President...
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