In his
New York Times column today, Bill Kristol makes his case why Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, 36, would make a good vice presidential pick for John McCain:
They’re tempted by the idea of picking someone so young, with real accomplishments and a strong reformist streak. It
might also be a way to confront the issue of McCain’s age (71), which
private polls and focus groups suggest could be a real problem. A
Jindal pick would implicitly acknowledge the questions and raise the
ante. The message would be: “You want generational change? You can get
it with McCain-Jindal — without risking a liberal and inexperienced
Obama as commander in chief.”
However, that assumes implicitly acknowledging McCain age "questions" is the best route for the presumptive Republican nominee. He seems to have had more success defying expectations about his age by running a vigorous campaign scheduling and regularly having his 96-year-old mother appear at campaign stops.
There are plenty of very good reasons to pick Jindal: his accomplishments, proven ability to win in a toss-up state in a bad electoral time for Republicans, solid conservative record and appeal to a growing minority segment of the population. But picking him primarily because his age stands in stark contrast to McCain's may not be a good choice at all.
The reaction from conservative bloggers to Kristol's column can be described as lukewarm at best. Blogger reactions after the jump...
Ross Douthat says VP's rarely become president, especially if they've lost a general election first. But perhaps more daunting, Jindal would be attaching himself to the "last gasp of Reagan-era Republicanism," rather than a forward-looking brand of Republicanism:
Jindal might be signing up to play Walter Mondale, rather than the Bill Clinton he could hope to be instead.
Club for Growth's
Nachama Soloveichik:
There are several problems with this increasingly popular ticket.
For starters, Jindal doesn't quite pass the "ready to be President"
test--yet. Yes, it is impressive that he won the governorship on a
platform of reform, but he has been governor for a grand total of four
months and a U.S. representative before that for a mere three years. Second, young is good, too young is not so good.
In a post entitled, "Let Him Clean Up Louisiana First," Ed Morrissey writes:
McCain has other choices for youth and energy, notably Tim Pawlenty and
Mark Sanford, both of whom have two terms as governors of their states.
Both men have national stature, and both could reach different parts of
the GOP coalition that may elude McCain at the moment.
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