Bobby Jindal: Republican Party Boss On Deck

Bobby Jindal, with wife, Supriya and son, Shaan at Baton Rouge rally. Credit: Associated Press.

Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, 37, is the current Republican governor of Louisiana and stands ready to accept The Crown - emerging as Grand Ol' Party Boss.

Conservatives are reeling. Recent 2008 election results have effectively served notice to the right-wing. The party's calling card of unfettered capitalism, de-regulation, militant posture, and gun rhetoric is officially caput. Although the popular vote was split evenly, the Obama campaign registered a landslide electoral college victory - highlighting the demise of The Republican Party. In addition to controlling the Left Coast and Northeast bastions of liberalism, Democrats further expanded their turf by dominating the Rust Belt, and claiming the interior West region as blue state territory. Obama will bring many friends to Washington, as the Democrats now also control both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

The 2008 election shall be remembered as nothing short of an outright embarrassment for the Republican Party. The carnage has been characterized by an inability to influence younger voters, African Americans, women, Hispanics, and working-class Americans. Recently, Republican governors met at Miami to assess the damage, strategize, and ultimately wrest Party leadership away from the Washington legislative branch and into State Capitol control. 

Enter Bobby Jindal.

Elected by 54% of the vote in a four-way 2007 Louisiana race, Jindal is the youngest current governor in the United States. He is the first Indian-American governor in U.S. History, and the first non-white to lead Louisiana since Reconstruction. His impressive rise to the Baton Rouge seat includes congressional duty, in which he dominated the democratic opposition in Louisiana's First District by sweeping 78 and 88 percent of the vote in the respective 2004 and 2006 elections. 

Jindal's eventual governorship came in response to statewide outrage directed at corrupt democratic leaders, and their bungled Hurricane Katrina response. Ironically the very same natural disaster and public relations fiasco that torpedoed Republican credibility on a national scale, trail blazed the ascendency of Bobby Jindal's claim to the Governor's Mansion.

Certainly, G.O.P. veterans will champion Jindal as an effective counter to Obama in 2012.

Bobby Jindal is the mirror image of Barack Obama. Governor Jindal, Brown University graduate - having been accepted by Yale Law, actually chose to forego a career in litigation for that of public servant. The Rhodes Scholar, then received a master's in political science at Oxford. This charismatic leader is the son of immigrants, and has embraced a system largely perceived as unwelcome to his class. He is indeed transcendent - his career path rivaling that of a young Obama. 

Countering Obama's well-documented posture of liberalism, Mr. Jindal is unapologetically conservative. The leader emphatically opposes stem cell research, promotes legislation friendly to gun owners, calls for staunch border control, openly supports off-shore drilling, and has berated Washington for a lack of fiscal restraint. 

Although a May meeting at John McCain's Phoenix home incited speculation centering upon Jindal as a potential running-mate, the governor vehemently refuted such scuttlebutt. Of course, McCain subsequently added Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to the ticket, shortly thereafter. The deepening real-estate bust, credit crisis, and stock market debacle doomed the McCain candidacy - resulting in the aforementioned election day rout.

Jindal's dismissal of the post left the politician unscathed. He has sidestepped the carnage of this McAain-Palin failure and is therefore poised to seriously engage 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Rather than cowering in defeat, the Louisiana Governor strikes back as a hard-liner, galvanizing the base by promoting standard G.O.P. doctrine. Says Jindal:

"When voters are saying that Democrats are more likely to cut axes and control spending, that tells you Republicans have gotten off the path. We are not being true to our principles. Our actions must match our rhetoric."

The battle lines have been drawn and the stage is set for Piyush "Bobby" Jindal to accept The Crown as G.O.P. Boss. Republican circles will be grooming the iconic Louisiana Governor to challenge President Obama in a 2012 Showdown for the Ages.