Words failed Rachel Maddow after Jindal gave his rebuttal.
Upon reviewing the reactions to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's Republican response to Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress last night, it seems that many bloggers and columnists share my assessment — even if my opinion was immediate and may not have allowed time for sufficient reflection.
I don't know if Obama's speech was a "home run," as Black Political Thought wrote. Nor would I go to the extent of labeling Jindal's remarks either "choppy" or a "disgrace" — although his delivery did leave a lot to be desired.
At best, though, I would agree with Frank James, of the conservative Chicago Tribune, who observed that the speech had its "jarring moments" — in particular the reference to Hurricane Katrina.
I'm sure Katrina has special relevance for people in Louisiana — but it reminds the rest of us of one of the lowest moments of the Bush presidency. Thus, even if Jindal had a worthwhile point to make — and I'm not sure he did — mentioning Hurricane Katrina is not the best sales pitch for Republican-style leadership during a crisis.
Katrina certainly wasn't funny. But Jason Linkins, at Huffington Post, found something funny to say about Jindal's speech. He saw an "uncanny" resemblance between Jindal and Kenneth the page from NBC's comedy, "30 Rock" — which may be appropriate, since Tina Fey, who skewered Sarah Palin so well on "Saturday Night Live" last fall, is the creator, executive producer and star of the show.
Linkins didn't write much. He let two video clips, one of Jindal and one of the Kenneth character, do his talking for him — and pretty eloquently, too, I might add.
Sam Stein reported for Huffington Post that pundits on both ends of the political spectrum criticized the speech. The verdict, Stein wrote, was that Jindal "came up short" on the "three hurdles" he had to clear in what was, admittedly, a "thankless" assignment — responding to Obama's speech.
Those hurdles, Stein said, were
- "to show that he could handle the national spotlight,
- "[to] present himself as a fresh face of the Republican Party, and
- "[to] stand up to the current president oratorically."
Andy Barr of Politico.com reported that Jindal was "panned" by a variety of observers, including NPR's Juan Williams, Fortune magazine's Nina Easton and conservative RedState blog's Erick Erickson (who found fault with Jindal's delivery more than his message).
Perhaps more significantly, Barr wrote that the reaction from University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato (whose accuracy in predicting the 2008 election was almost 100% on target) was that "it's difficult to imagine him now as Obama's 2012 opponent" — a role for which many Republicans clearly were hoping he would be mentioned after his national debut last night.
But, as Sabato observed, Jindal still needs "a lot more seasoning" before he'll be ready for that role.
And John J. Pitney Jr., a political science professor at California's Claremont McKenna College, may have had the best assessment of Jindal — "[H]e has a lot of time to improve his delivery. In the year 2040 he will still be younger than McCain was in 2008."
Still, Obama's speech was not without its drawbacks as well.
It is true that the crisis facing the country was not of his making, that he inherited it from his predecessor, and it doesn't hurt to remind people of that fact at this point.
But Obama has now been president for more than a month. It is his mess to deal with now. The American people waited patiently through the months of transition (and simultaneous inaction by the lame duck president) while hundreds of thousands more jobs were lost. With the new president now in charge, the expectations are high.
As both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton discovered in their first years in office, even a supportive public can soon turn on a president who doesn't deliver quickly. And regaining the lost momentum can be awkward and time consuming.
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