The Opposition's Persona

As a student of government, I love political pageantry. When the President of the United States of America address a joint session of Congress, my favorite part is always the beginning. I love watching the formal parade of the most important men and women in the nation, each group with their own formal introduction and presentation. I get a lump in my throat when I the President of the United States give his speech, filled with applause, cheers, and the occasional boo from the opposition party. The sheer formality of it all fascinates me. Then after the speech, you see the President make his way out, signing autographs and shaking hands with Congressional pages.

President Obama’s speech on Tuesday gave me that same feeling. As far as sound bites go, he didn’t tell us anything we didn’t expect or didn’t already know. But he was still very eloquent, careful, and he looked like a leader. But as we know, after the speech comes the opposition party’s pre-taped “response”, and this time the young Governor Jindal of Louisiana was chosen to fill that role. Governor Jindal is supposed to be the new face of the Republican party, but the new face kind of looks a lot like the old one.

Piyush Jindal (conveniently nicknamed ‘Bobby’) is the son of Indian immigrants and attended Brown University and Oxford. He assumed the Governorship in January 2008.
The speech itself was criticized across the board. If you watched any cable news on Wednesday you know what I’m talking about. I included a link at the bottom of this post so that you can actually see what was said.


What I am focusing on though, is the persona that Governor Jindal is trying to portray in his attempt to rise through the ranks of his party. If you listened to him speak, you noticed that he gave his speech with such a thick southern accent that he was just short of beginning each sentence with “I do declare”. This wouldn’t be a problem for me, except a friend of mine brought to my attention that on other television appearences his accent and presentation has never sounded the way it did on Tuesday night. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and check out the video link at the bottom of this post and compare it to what you heard on Tuesday. Now don’t get me wrong, I find men named Bobby with southern accents just as charming as the next guy, but why is the GOP trying to push this common man persona on us again? What is it about the nature of the party system that keeps Piyush Jindal from being the intellectual young Rhodes scholar and makes him Bobby the good southern christian?

I know that everyone likes the common man, but that is how you end up with Sarah Palin. Why can’t an intellectual become a popular member of the Republican party? Why are the smart, well educated, and capable men and women (with or without southern accents) constantly being branded as “elitist”?

We have one party controlling the government, and all that the only opposition party can offer us going foreword is Bobby from the south. Anyone else feel cheated? Perhaps we need more then two choices.

-These are my own personal views-

Jinall Response Part-1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JIE7dUOWZ8

Jinall Response Part-2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swuZ_McNtsQ&feature=related

Jindall lacking his southern charm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT34N3GRtI0&feature=related