Jindal's fumble

It occurred to me (and apparently others) that Bobby Jindal's delivery last night bore more than a passing resemblance to Kenneth from 30 Rock. It goes without saying that's not a good thing for a politician widely talked about as a potential presidential nominee for the GOP.

But the real trouble for Jindal -- and the GOP -- came in the substance of the speech. Jindal's anecdote about the New Orleans sheriff made it clear Republicans are still failing to grasp the shift that's occurred in the electorate:

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: "Well, I’m the sheriff and if you don’t like it you can come and arrest me!" I asked him: "Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?" He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go -- when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, "Sheriff, that’s ridiculous." And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: "Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!" Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens. We are grateful for the support we have received from across the nation for the ongoing recovery efforts. This spirit got Louisiana through the hurricanes -- and this spirit will get our nation through the storms we face today.

The lesson that Jindal chose to highlight from his Katrina experience was that government was too interfering? The consensus opinion about Katrina is that the tragedy was exacerbated by too little government intervention, not too much. "Heckuva Job, Brownie" is one of the defining moments of Bush's tenure. Like Katrina, the economic disaster we are facing today can only be averted by a massive government response. Federal intervention is what stands between us and a total financial meltdown. In a recent Washington Post poll, the majority of Americans clearly expressed their desire for a large government role in righting the economy -- 64 percent approved of the historically large stimulus package. In the same poll, respondents said they approve of Obama's handling of the economy 61 percent compared to 26 percent for congressional Republicans.

Jindal's reiteration of the shopworn mantra that "government is the problem" seems not only tone deaf, but totally out-of-step with what's needed to bring us out of this crisis. I fear the GOP is going to relegate itself to the political minority for years to come unless it can figure out a credible response to the financial meltdown. Jindal's performance Tuesday night was more worthy of 30 Rock than a serious candidate for president.