Kevin Drum takes a look at how the media have decided Bobby Jindal will be our next president. That's because he's a "reformer." Some of his statements are almost "liberal." And that's in spite of who he really is:
What Jindal has going for him is a peculiar combination. On the one hand, he's about as conservative as it's possible to get. On social issues he's roughly a clone of Rick Santorum, and on domestic issues he's....well, he's the guy who has the brass to suggest that Louisiana should abolish its income tax and replace it with a sales tax. In other words, he explicitly wants to lower taxes on the rich and raise taxes on the poor. Even Newt Gingrich would quail a bit at that prospect. ...Kevin Drum, MoJo
Yikes!
It doesn't stop there.
I think Jindal has more crossover appeal than a lot of pundits think. He's got obvious appeal to the tea party base, which loves his hardnosed conservatism and really loves the idea of proving that they're not racists by voting for a hardnosed conservative who's also a dark-skinned son of Indian parents. (Take that, liberals!) And the press will, as usual, be wowed by the idea of a hardnosed conservative who has a high IQ and can discuss policy issues intelligently. The fact that Jindal is singing the same old tired song, and merely wrapping it in a thin fog of policy wonkishness, will take a while to sink in. ...Drum, MoJo
I think we better start right now demanding his authentic gen-u-wine birth certificate (if it exists! and we can always say it isn't authentic enough for us!) .
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