My friend (and former editor) David Frum recently wrote an article which stated that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney should pick Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as his running mate rather than Florida Senator Marco Rubio, notwithstanding a lot of political commentary supporting Rubio. While it is true that the GOP has problems with getting support from Latino voters, Frum argues that picking Rubio won't be very helpful to the Republican Party on that front. Frum says that Latino voters support the Democratic Party because it is the party of economic liberalism and it is a mistake to think that Latino voters will switch their ideological allegiances because the GOP's vice-presidential nominee is a Latino, particularly given that the biggest bloc of Latino Democratic voters are Mexican-American and Rubio is Cuban-American.
Instead, Frum suggests that the GOP should aim at another group that leans Democratic but might be pulled towards the GOP -- Asian American voters. As he puts it:
And to the extent that symbolic politics can sway votes, Republicans should be looking to groups more receptive to the core Republican message than Mexican-Americans are likely to be. The Asian-American population is also growing fast, and many Asian groups -- Vietnamese-Americans and Indian-Americans to name only two -- are gaining their success in small business. They are natural targets for Republican recruitment... or these voters, inclusion does matter. Symbols of inclusion can work.
I think Frum is on to something here and not just on the issue of moving particular Democratic-leaning ethnic groups towards the Republican Party in the 2012 election. While Jindal may help the Republican Party among Asian American voters (Jindal's parents emigrated from India), I think he would also help with gaining support among highly-educated voters, which is another group that the GOP has been having problems with. As Michael Medved points out, university graduates are an increasing portion of the electorate and as a group they have been moving towards the Democrats in recent years.
The Republican Party over recent years has been developing a reputation for anti-intellectualism that has damaged its brand among highly educated voters. A Romney-Jindal ticket could help move such voters to the GOP column. Jindal is a graduate of Brown University and a Rhodes Scholar. It would be difficult to tag him and Mitt Romney (who holds not one but two degrees from Harvard) as being people who don't appreciate the importance of higher education and intellectual values to the same degree that, for example, it would be relatively easy to tag candidates like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum as such.
If Romney wants to encourage highly-educated voters to support him, picking Bobby Jindal as his running mate would be a good move. It would be a move that would signal that the GOP (at least in Mitt Romney's White House) isn't hostile to those who value and aspire to academic success. A Romney-Jindal ticket would be a formidable one and as such Romney should strongly consider Jindal as his running mate, even if conventional wisdom suggests other choices.
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Seriously, HuffPost, research his track record in Louisiana now -- not good. Jindal's approval rating has dropped drastically.
Jindal promised transparency and instead he has become a dictator.
This is something that has not been picked up on by the national media, but search any state media outlet and you'll find what he has done.
Jindal has spent years not as Louisiana's governor, but as someone seeking the VP post.
He lied to the state to gain reelection and then implemented his radical plans.
Meanwhile, our education system, highways, elderly services, etc. are in shambles.
A disappointment!
Hope Mitt signs him on!
What did Jindal do with all that money? In the hip-hop vernacular, he made it rain. He rolled back income taxes that voters approved under the so-called Stelly Plan in 2002, plowed $245 million into lawmakers' pet projects and created a slew of tax breaks, including one with a price tag of $360 million. Jindal called it "terrific news."
The good news didn't last long.
Jindal's first Christmas in the governor's mansion brought news of a $341 million midyear budget shortfall. The young governor, an avowed fiscal conservative, somehow had allowed the state to spend more money than it took in. Complicating matters, revenue forecasters warned of a possible $2 billion deficit for the 2009-2010 budget year."
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/bobby-jindals-bad-math/Content?oid=2001136
Obama/Biden 2012