Apparently, asking a politician if you want the President to fail is now an acceptable stand-in for actual journalism. Which is nice to know, because I was afraid that the press would respond to the country's heightened awareness of political and economic matters by treating them like adult-like beings. Thank God we don't have to worry about that. (Thanks, Rush!)

For what it's worth, I think Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal answered the question as best he could, with a sense of thoughtful nuance unbecoming of a Republican…

"It depends on what he's trying to do," Jindal told a crowd of about 1,200 Republicans at the National Building Museum… If the president does what Jindal agrees with — like cutting earmarks — then he said he wishes Obama success. But if the president, as Jindal perceives, keeps the United States indebted to China, taxes Americans to fund abortions in foreign countries, taxes private businesses or allows public union elections, then, Jindal said, Republicans should want Obama to fail in those measures.

"We are loyal to the United States, but we don't have to be loyal to every policy," he stated… He added that opposition, as he sees it, is a healthy exercise for democracy.

Unfortunately, that sort of of ugly attention to intelligently-considered rhetoric will never fly with Republican voters. If he wants to be the GOP's nominee in '12, he's gonna have to change that answer to something more akin to "Me hate Herr President Communist! We want him fail big time! Drill endangered species for oil!"

I think I missed my calling as a speechwriter.