Jindal Excites GOP
Before Sen. John McCain could begin speaking at a town-hall meeting here Wednesday, he first had to quiet a crowd gone wild for Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal -- a politician who not long ago would have been inconceivable in Louisiana.
Gov. Jindal, a child of Indian immigrants who has a gift for oratory, is the first minority to govern Louisiana since African-American P.B.S. Pinchback held the office for 35 days during Reconstruction.
The similarities between the 36-year-old Gov. Jindal and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama are tantalizing to many in the Grand Old Party. After only 143 days as the nation's youngest sitting governor, Gov. Jindal's name is being bandied about as a potential running mate for likely Republican presidential nominee Sen. McCain.
"The governor has been able to reach across the aisle and get things done for the people of Louisiana, help the folks in New Orleans in the recovering from the storm," Sen. McCain said of Gov. Jindal, during a news conference.
"That would be something that I could show the American people as a way that people from both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat, can sit down and work together."
Sen. McCain didn't talk about his process for selecting a running mate, and Gov. Jindal insists he's not campaigning for the slot. Sen. McCain has met repeatedly in recent weeks with Gov. Jindal, as well as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The McCain campaign has said nearly two dozen people are being considered.
Whatever happens, Gov. Jindal, an Ivy League intellectual with a reformist's zeal, has come to represent for some party leaders the youthful streak and problem-solving approach to government they believe are critical to reinvigorating a Republican Party adrift under a deeply unpopular president.
"Bobby Jindal...is somebody who could be touted as part of the next generation of national Republican leaders. And they should be touting him," said one of the governor's mentors, U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, of northern Louisiana.
Sen. McCain has visited Louisiana four times in the past several months, a tacit admission that the Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina remains a memory he must address for many Americans.
That's especially true at a time when Republican wedge issues such as opposition to gay marriage and illegal immigration appear increasingly less effective, even in places like Louisiana.
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