Kathleen Parker: Will the Real Bobby Jindal Please Stand Up?
"...The real Jindal is the intellectual equivalent of a nuclear power plant. The real Jindal has actually read the stimulus bill and can recite its contents. The real Jindal is the sort of politician who promises ethics and education reform, and actually delivers.
...
What happened to that guy? Who snatched his body?
His staff did. In fact, Jindal did not write his own speech Tuesday, and he's wearing a choke collar placed by some well-meaning people who helped him win the governor's race.
...
Being the smartest person in the room can be a mixed blessing. Whether it is advantage or handicap for a brainy politician depends on having the right people around him. At the moment, Jindal seems to be handicapped by handlers who either don't trust him or have no faith in Americans' intelligence.
In coaching him to dim the lights a tad, they stole his spark. Dumbing down doesn't come naturally to wunderkinder such as Jindal. In trying to sound human, he sounds fake. In attempting to convey everydayness, he comes across as an extraterrestrial.
...
When Jindal apparently slipped his collar and resurfaced Wednesday morning on the "Today" show, the Rhodes scholar Jindal (who was accepted to both Yale and Harvard medical and law schools) was back.
He dropped his "I'm-just-a-regular-guy" shtick and managed to articulate his conservative principles without putting the audience in mind of cookies and milk. Praising Obama's objectives -- while conceding that Republicans have lost fiscal credibility -- he emphasized his preference for policies that help businesses create jobs rather than government programs he fears will require a taxpayer feeding tube in perpetuity...."
link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702637_pf.html
...
What happened to that guy? Who snatched his body?
His staff did. In fact, Jindal did not write his own speech Tuesday, and he's wearing a choke collar placed by some well-meaning people who helped him win the governor's race.
...
Being the smartest person in the room can be a mixed blessing. Whether it is advantage or handicap for a brainy politician depends on having the right people around him. At the moment, Jindal seems to be handicapped by handlers who either don't trust him or have no faith in Americans' intelligence.
In coaching him to dim the lights a tad, they stole his spark. Dumbing down doesn't come naturally to wunderkinder such as Jindal. In trying to sound human, he sounds fake. In attempting to convey everydayness, he comes across as an extraterrestrial.
...
When Jindal apparently slipped his collar and resurfaced Wednesday morning on the "Today" show, the Rhodes scholar Jindal (who was accepted to both Yale and Harvard medical and law schools) was back.
He dropped his "I'm-just-a-regular-guy" shtick and managed to articulate his conservative principles without putting the audience in mind of cookies and milk. Praising Obama's objectives -- while conceding that Republicans have lost fiscal credibility -- he emphasized his preference for policies that help businesses create jobs rather than government programs he fears will require a taxpayer feeding tube in perpetuity...."
link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702637_pf.html