Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential Republican presidential candidate, addresses luncheon attendees at June’s “Road to Majority” conference. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)
When I traveled to Baton Rouge in November 2008 to report and write an early national profile of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the world was a very different place — particularly for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Barack Obama had just been elected president. America was still swooning. And Jindal, who had been in office for less than a year at that point, was riding nearly as high as his Democratic counterpart from Chicago.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had recently referred to Jindal as “the most transformative young governor in America.” Radio host Rush Limbaugh had taken to calling him “the next Ronald Reagan.” GOP White House nominee John McCain had already eyed Jindal as a running mate, and earlier that month, Steve Schmidt, McCain’s chief strategist, had told the Washington Post that “the question is not whether he’ll be president, but when he’ll be president — because he will be elected someday.”
Nearly seven years have passed since I visited Jindal in Louisiana. On Wednesday, during an event titled “Geaux Bobby: A Special Announcement from Governor Bobby Jindal” at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner, just outside New Orleans, Jindal will finally confirm what his famous Republican fans prophesied way back when: He’s running for president.
His timing couldn’t be worse.
To say that Jindal is “barely registering” in the latest 2016 polls would be an overstatement. According to RealClear Politics, he currently averages 0.8 percent support among Republican primary voters, placing him dead last among the 15 contenders typically considered serious enough to merit pollsters’ attention. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham outpolls Jindal. So does Ohio Gov. John Kasich. And former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. And former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. The most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal survey pegged Jindal’s support at zero percent.
His standing at home in Louisiana is even shakier. In May, Jindal’s job-approval rating hit “an all-time low” of 31.8 percent; his disapproval rating, meanwhile, soared to a record high of 64.7 percent. A survey released last week showed that if the 2016 presidential election were held today, Jindal’s fellow Louisianans, who aren’t known for their liberalism,would choose Democrat Hillary Clinton over their current governor . Even President Obama, who lost Louisiana by 17 percentage points in 2012, is more popular than Jindal in the Pelican State. As the Washington Post recently put it, “ Bobby Jindal is at the nadir of his political career.”
What happened? Why hasn’t Jindal become the next Reagan — or, as my profile posited, “the GOP’s Obama”? On the eve of the governor’s big announcement, I revisited my 2008 reporting in an attempt to recall what initially made him such an exciting political prospect. (Portions of this piece are adapted from that profile.) I also reviewed his record over the subsequent six-plus years.
What I found was a story of real promise — promise that many in Louisiana say he has squandered.
Gov. Bobby Jindal delivers the Republican Party’s official response to President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress in 2009.
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