Bobby Jindal

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Somehow Bush won using the exact opposite of your logic.

"Having" your base is not the same thing as inspiring them to get off their asses and vote for you. It's all about who shows up.

It is the growing independents/middle of the roaders who determined the recent outcome and will likely have the greatest impact in the short term.

The Democrats have opened their tent and expanded their constituency....The Republicans have rallied around their base and shut the center out.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by Redux

It is the growing independents/middle of the roaders who determined the recent outcome and will likely have the greatest impact in the short term.

The Democrats have opened their tent and expanded their constituency....The Republicans have rallied around their base and shut the center out.

...And now the Dems are doing their level best to lose in 2010.

What the hell is wrong with them? They're acting like caricatures of 1980s Dems.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night -- about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims?

Turns out it wasn't actually, you know, true.

But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

This is no minor difference. Jindal's presence in Lee's office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story's intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn't there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.

There's a larger point here, though. The central anecdote of the GOP's prime-time response to President Obama's speech, intended to illustrate the threat of excessive government regulation, turns out to have been made up.