Bobby Jindal’s Probably Running for President. Let’s Give Him a Serious Look.
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Morning Jolt September 17, 2014 Bobby Jindal’s Probably Running for President. Let’s Give Him a Serious Look. Republicans in early primary states, listen up. There’s a really good chance that early next year, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal will run for president. Maybe his wife Supriya will wake up one morning and decide she can’t stand the thought, or maybe the governor will decide he doesn’t want to spend so much time away from his (fairly young) children. But otherwise, he looks like a man who wants to be president. Put another way, governors don’t issue national policy plans on health-care or energy policy if they’re not interested in running for president.
I’m not saying you early state-primary Republicans have to vote for Jindal. But you do have to hear him out. Don’t let a guy this good end up leaving the field early because he couldn’t get traction in your state. Does Jindal have flaws? Sure. Some people’s perceptions of Jindal are locked in amber from that 2009 response to Obama. Yes, he talks too fast and his drawl is thick. He might be the first presidential candidate who will need subtitles. Yes, I wish he was few inches taller and bulked up a bit. But if your measuring stick for the next president is, “How well has this guy managed what he can control, in his state?”, then he might be the best of the field. I know, Rick Perry’s got a pretty solid record in Texas, too. Yes, Scott Walker can make a decent case as well. But in addition to a strong record of executive leadership, turning around a state in deep trouble when he became governor, he’s one of the few Republicans who can hit the folksy notes but is also fluent in policy wonkery at the granular level. Yesterday, in a meeting with some conservative bloggers at the Heritage Foundation, Jindal went on the attack on environmental policy, calling the Obama administration “denialists.” He pointed out he Chinese have added more coal capacity in the past few years than the entire U.S. capacity. “The U.S. currently exports 10 percent of coal,” then asking, how does our shipping our coal to other countries with even less pollution controls help the environment? He contended that environmentalists turn against forms of energy as soon as they become widespread and inexpensive: “You see it in their shift on natural gas,” Jindal said. “When it was scarce and expensive, they liked it.” Or take a look at his bit of jujitsu on the topic of expanding Medicaid. He said he saw fewer lawmakers in both parties pushing for Medicaid expansion in Louisiana the second year than in the first year. Asked about how much of the lobbying for Medicaid expansion was fueled by hospitals hoping for more Medicaid payments, Jindal chuckled, “A lot of these entitlement programs are entitlement programs for the people getting the money” — meaning the hospitals and care providers who get paid through the programs. “In Louisiana, if we expanded Medicaid, for every person who wasn’t insured who signed up, more than one insured person would drop their private plan and go on Medicaid,” Jindal said. “I told [the hospitals], ‘be careful what you ask for — you’re going to trade your commercial payers for your state payers, and what do you think is going to happen when the state starts feeling the squeeze on money?’” Has any other Republican reframed Medicaid expansion as a short-sighted profit-seeking scheme on the part of big hospitals? As Jindal said yesterday, conservatives and Republicans shouldn’t be too focused on 2016 when there are real races to be won in 2014. But as a Jindal fan, a bid by the governor would be something to really look forward to in the coming cycle. Win or lose, he would probably elevate the debate and move it beyond dueling rehearsed applause lines. Think Iraq and Syria are Bad? Wait for Libya and the Sinai to Blow Up Last night in the Fox News green room, Senator Lindsey Graham pointed out that Libya remains a mess — approaching the status of a failed state — and that if the U.S. really makes life miserable for ISIS in Iraq (and Syria?), ISIS could withdraw their leaders to Libya and reestablish themselves there. Oh, and here’s one major complication for one of the region’s traditional Arab powers, Egypt, if they wanted to take a bigger role against the Islamic State: Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula are getting more aggressive: Six policemen were killed Tuesday when a bomb blast tore through their armored vehicle in the Sinai Peninsula, security officials said. It was the second such deadly attack this month. Egyptian security forces have recently stepped up their offensive against armed Islamist groups in the Sinai, raiding hideouts and targeting militant leaders. The insurgents have fought back with powerful roadside bombs. Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, makes the not-easy-to-dispute argument that way too often, U.S. arms and training provided to non-state groups ends up getting used against Americans. The U.S. spent billions and years training the Iraqi army . . . and then they fell apart in their first real fight against the Islamic State. Mark Udall, Big Fat Liar And you thought you didn’t like Mark Udall before: Republican operatives believe they have found a smoking gun against Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, who said during a 2008 debate he was against a "government-sponsored" solution for health care. The then-congressman, who was running for an open seat in the U.S. Senate, echoed arguments made by conservatives. "I'm not for a government-sponsored solution," Udall said. "I'm for enhancing and improving the employer-based system that we have." In a debate overshadowed by other issues — rising energy prices and the war on terror — Udall's answer that July barely created a ripple. But in the context of Sen. Udall's vote for the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and his tough re-election bid against Republican Congressman Cory Gardner in November, the statement takes on new meaning. These red- and purple-state Democrats just lie. They say they oppose these liberal ideas, and then once they’re in, they go along with Pelosi and Reid and all the rest. By 2010, Udall, the guy who insisted he didn’t want “a government-sponsored solution,” said he supported the public option: Bennet made national headlines by writing a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid demanding the chance to put a "public option," government-run insurance alternative in the final legislation. More than 40 senators signed the letter, but the public option was never reconsidered. Udall, however, was not among the Democrats who signed Bennet's letter. Udall said he supports creating a public option, but added, "I thought we needed to bring this drawn-out process to an end." Words don’t have much meaning anymore, huh? New York Could Use a Little ‘Hope’, Couldn’t It? If you’re the Republicans and thinking nationally, how big a target is New York governor Andrew Cuomo this cycle? Indisputably, Cuomo is a heavy favorite. It would take a Herculean effort to elect a Republican in this deep blue state; Cuomo leads handily even with the U.S. Attorney threatening to investigate him and about a third of the state’s Democratic primary voters willing to vote for someone else. We know Cuomo isn’t much of a target of Chris Christie’s Republican Governors Association (RGA) this cycle.
But one of the hard lessons for Republicans in the rise of Barack Obama is that you don’t want to let the other guy’s rising stars cruise unimpeded for long stretches. You want to challenge them. Find out their flaws. Run some attack ads and make sure that voters know about those flip-flops, dodged questions, sketchy associations, and embarrassing gaffes. And indisputably, Andrew Cuomo sees himself as a major national player in the Democratic party for a long time to come. With that in mind, Rescue New York Inc., a 527, is unveiling a new ad. Ever wonder why Andrew Cuomo is throwing so much dirt on a good man like Rob Astorino? Because Cuomo is stuck in a Federal ethics investigation and doesn’t want you to get a good look at Astorino. Rob Astorino wants term limits for state politicians. Astorino will end Common Core and improve standards. And Astorino has a real plan to create jobs and cut property taxes. Astorino for Governor. Hope for New York. The ad, produced by Warfield & Co., was released today by Rescue New York and will begin airing in selected markets on Wednesday, September 17, 2014. The initial buy is $426,000 and will run in the “North Country, Capital Region, Hudson Valley, Southern Tier, and Long Island.” ADDENDA: Charles Krauthammer, sharing a story that had me laughing out loud: “A woman came up to me after a speech in Colorado. She said, ‘I’m so glad I got a chance to see you in person. Now I know you have teeth.” To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com
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