On Bobby Jindal's Fail

There's been a lot of talk online about Obama's faux-SOTU last night. Good points and bad points. However, I personally am way more interested in Bobby Jindal's response. Because it's a lot easier to make fun of a trainwreck than to make fun of a train that pretty much arrives when you thought it would but maybe smelled a little bit like salami. (You can take that however you like.)

Here's Jindal's rebuttal, in case you missed it…

As a commenter (Cube, I think) pointed out in the comments last night, you can't watch that speech — essentially, his first speech as a big-time operator on the national stage — without also remembering Sarah Palin's first speech on the day after the DNC.

The differences could not be more stark. Sure, Sarah Palin proved herself to be somewhat of a self-perpetuating caricature within a few weeks, but that first day, those first few weeks, she seemed like a force of nature. Strong, confident, witty, attractive and (yes) intelligent. And she actually knocked Obama off the front page for a good long month.

By contrast, look at Jindal's first time. He seemed snake-oily, untrustworthy, un-energetic and goofy. He didn't even radiate any of that supposed intelligence of his.

Here's Andrew Sullivan's response to BJ from last night, which, to me, seems right on the bailout money…

Close your eyes and think of Kenneth from 30 Rock. I can barely count the number of emails making that observation…

Stylistically, he got better as he went along but there was, alas, a slightly high-school debate team feel to the beginning. And there was a patronizing feel to it as well – as if he were talking to kindergartners – that made Obama's adult approach so much more striking. And I'm not sure that the best example for private enterprise is responding to a natural calamity that even Ron Paul believes is a responsibility for the federal government.

And really: does a Republican seriously want to bring up Katrina?…

If the GOP believes tax cuts – more tax cuts – are the answer to every problem right now, they are officially out of steam and out of ideas. And remember: this guy is supposed to be the smart one.

And some opinions from the right he dug up.