It seems in conducting opposition research on candidates, Hillary's camp likes to look at conspiracy theories and nutty statements they can use from none other than FreeRepublic.com (as well as other sites)
...Bobby Jindal oppo
From:nico.pitney@gmail.com
To: bigcampaign@googlegroups.com
Date: 2008-05-22 15:40
Subject: [big campaign] Bobby Jindal oppo
FYI:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/22/who-is-bobby-jindal-the-g_n_103045.html
Who Is Bobby Jindal? The Good, The Bad, And The
Ugly<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/22/who-is-bobby-jindal-the-g_n_103045.html>
<http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/22/who-is-bobby-jindal-the-g_n_103045.html&title=Seth%20Colter%20Walls:%20Who%20Is%20Bobby%20Jindal%3F%20The%20Good%2C%20The%20Bad%2C%20And%20The%20Ugly>
<http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/huffington_post/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/22/who-is-bobby-jindal-the-g_n_103045.html>
Two of the three governors headed to Sen. John McCain's Arizona ranch for
preliminary vice-presidential auditions this
weekend<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/us/politics/22veep.html?hp>are
known political quantities. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
was, of course, one of McCain's fiercest rivals on the Republican
presidential primary circuit, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist won a
gubernatorial race that captured national attention in 2006.
Bobby Jindal, however, is much less well known -- though that's an
impression the 36-year-old second-generation Indian American has been doing
his best to address in the first five months of his new job as Louisiana
governor.
An eight-minute spot on Jay Leno's
couch<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/01/AR2008050103405.html>and
a National Press Club speech that was well received by
conservatives<http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDE1MzEwMWQzY2EzNTdkNmY3NWI2MTJkOGNlOTBiNmM=>have
prompted some on the right to muse about the benefits of having his
presence on the presidential ticket. Alternatively, others are now worrying
whether their own Rhodes Scholar wunderkind might be needlessly
damaged<http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/jindalmania.php>by
running during an inauspicious year for GOP candidates.
But in an interesting development, the same quarters that have raised doubts
about freshman Sen. Barack Obama's national security bona fides seem
relatively unconcerned about Jindal's potential place on a ticket headed by
a 71-year-old whose heath has been the subject of
focus<http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1779596,00.html>by
the media. Similarly, given McCain's accusations regarding Obama's
"inexperience," Jindal's short if well diversified resume has nevertheless
failed to prove a stumbling block to speculation about the fast-tracking of
his political future.
On the National Review's blog, The Corner, Yuval Levin
wrote<http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWZjMmI4MzY0ZTRhOGIyYjhkYjVhY2FkOGFhNzY5NzU=>:
"[Jindal has] more management and executive experience than Hillary Clinton,
Barack Obama, or John McCain can point to. The Democrats could hardly accuse
him of a thin resume if they're running Obama." While that analysis could
conceivably be run in reverse, as well, there is actually something besides
armchair political analysis to consider when looking at Jindal.
LSU Political Science Professor Jeffrey D. Sadow says the new governor's
first five months can be split into the good, the bad, and the ugly. The
"good," according to Sadow (who is also a registered Republican), includes
budget cuts, new spending priorities and the passage of a package of ethics
reforms for Louisiana politicians. If these new rules don't quite meet the
"gold standard" Jindal promised on the campaign trail, Sadow said they merit
a "silver."
State Democratic Party communications director Julie Vezinot said, however,
that many of these reforms "were already in the works" before Jindal assumed
office, while the rest "are not enforceable." The non-partisan Public
Affairs Research Council of Louisiana has echoed her second charge, and also
alleged <http://www.la-par.org/article.cfm?id=231&cateid=2> that a burden of
proof change in the new ethics code will make "violations more difficult to
prove." Nevertheless, the Center for Public Integrity was impressed enough
to boost <http://www.publicintegrity.org/oi/db.aspx?act=rank> Louisiana's
poor 2006 score on its state disclosure ranking.
Still, the conventional wisdom about Jindal being a reform-minded politician
is not without opportunities for Democrats to challenge, should he become
McCain's choice for the veep slot. The fact that Jindal's second-highest
paid campaign staffer turned out to be an energy
lobbyist<http://www.dailykingfish.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=335>might
not be the best issue for a presidential candidate who is fighting a
"perception
problem<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/19/mccains-lobbyist-problem_n_102393.html?view=screen>"
on the very same issue. Also, Jindal has agreed to pay a $2,500 fine in
order to avoid an ethics hearing due to his
failure<http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-5/120789145327440.xml&coll=1>to
accurately report over $118,000 worth of in-kind contributions from
the
state GOP.
Other issues that could gain traction in any fall campaign against Jindal
run the gamut from the personal to the wonky. Among the former, there is the
wild and controversial claim that Jindal, a convert to Catholicism, witnessed
an exorcism <http://www.dailykingfish.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=224> (though
state Democrats ultimately decided
against<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1879079/posts>employing
this "issue" last year). Meanwhile, on more substantive grounds,
though McCain came out
against<http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/14/mccain.marriage/>a
federal marriage amendment in 2004, Jindal voted
yay <http://www.hrc.org/issues/5554.htm> on the matter as a House member in
2006. Jindal was also viewed as the most fervently anti-abortion candidate
in the governor's race,
telling<http://www.siecus.org/policy/PUpdates/arch03/arch030075.html>the
Times-Picayune, "I am 100 percent anti-abortion with no exceptions. I
believe all life is precious." McCain and Jindal also hold opposing views on
the creation of new embryonic stem cell lines for medical research. While
these issues could help intensify support for the eventual Democratic
nominee in moderate to liberal circles, they would also likely strengthen
McCain's hand among the evangelicals for whom his candidacy has occasionally
proved a tough sell.
Elsewhere in his evaluation of Jindal's record, LSU's Sadow identified "the
bad" as the governor's awkward and late embrace of a tax cut proposal put
forward by Republican State Senator Buddy Shaw. Senate Bill 87, still
working its way through Louisiana's legislature, would roll back a an add-on
to the state's income tax code that is opposed by many conservatives and
some Democrats.
"Clearly Jindal's handling of SB 87 has been about the only mistake he's
made ... politically," Sadow said. "While Jindal never promised any
individual income tax cuts during the campaign, he said he hoped to to do so
and even eliminate the income tax. Yet his unexplained hesitancy to embrace
even one that seemed quite 'affordable' mystified many, especially among his
supporters."
The bill's author, perhaps once perturbed, now sings Jindal's praises,
however. "I just think that he would be an excellent choice [for
vice-president]," State Sen. Buddy Shaw told The Huffington Post. "Given his
energy output and intellectual capability ... I would see it as good for
Louisiana and good for the country." Still, Shaw hopes Jindal's ascension
doesn't occur too quickly, since his tax cut bill is still working its way
through the conference committee. "I hope he's not on the campaign trail
prior to signing that bill," Shaw admitted. "If he leaves, I'm not sure what
the incoming individual would do."
Louisiana state Democrats are clearly trying to make an issue out of
Jindal's potential abandonment of his duties for the national stage. In a
press release issued rapidly after news broke Wednesday of Jindal's upcoming
visit with McCain, Louisiana Democratic Party Chairman Chris Whittington
said: "The Louisiana Democratic Party has said repeatedly throughout his
campaign for governor that Jindal will cut and run the minute he gets a shot
at a higher office. Now, not six months into his term, his eye is on the
prize of the Vice Presidency with little focus on what is going on here in
Louisiana."
The extent to which claims by Jindal's critics will stick ties into the
problem Sadow labeled as "the ugly" part of the governor's tenure thus far.
While Jindal is currently coasting on a sky-high 77 percent approval rating,
Sadow said this is in spite of a sputtering public relations machine. "Where
Jindal has come up shortest is in his administration's ability to
communicate effectively its policy preferences as opposed to its much
superior efforts in conveying a campaign agenda," Sadow said, suggesting
that Jindal believes the local media will be against him no matter what.
"He has cooperated with the media only when it suits him," Sadow noted.
"However, in part it also is just lack of skill. The SB 87 incident is the
best example, where the administration totally misread the public and
legislative mood. As a result, it had to grab onto the caboose rather than
jump into the cab of that juggernaut train. For example, had he given a
principled explanation -- and he had a good one -- to what appeared to be
his opposition to the bill, he probably would have suffered little political
damage. But either he couldn't or he thought non-communication about it
would work. It didn't.".....
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/35210
