Here are some newsworthy odd facts:
- The youngest governor in the U.S. is the Governor of Louisiana.
- The first U.S. governor of Indian descent (India the Country not Native American) is the current Governor of Louisiana.
- Louisiana's governor has adopted the first name "Bobby" from Bobby Brady of the "Brady Bunch."
The best candidate for President of the United States is not in the race. He is the Governor of Louisiana.
During Bobby Jindal's first run for governor he came to Shreveport for a politcal rally and I got to sit down and eat lunch with him. It was purely an accident. My mother, father, older brother, and I were looking for a table where we could all sit together and there was an empty table in what we thought was the back corner. After a short while, I noticed that for some reason someone had left a podium in the back of the room. Then Jindal and a local official, a friend of mine, entered the room and made a beeline to our table. I thought "what an honor, I am going to be introduced to the guest of honor!" My family and I stood up and shook hands with my friend and then were introduced to Mr. Jindal. We then sat down and so did my friend and Mr. Jindal. It was at that point that I realized that our table had been unoccupied because it was supposed to have been reserved for Mr. Jindal. I am active in North Louisiana politics and because of this fact, I do not think that my mother realized that our sitting with Jindal for lunch was not a planned thing. I think in her mind, I had "arrived" politically. You know, I don't think I have ever discussed the truth of that situation with my mom, but that chance lunch with the now Governor of Louisiana reinforced what I had read and have come to believe about Bobby Jindal.
It is well documented that Governor Jindal is probably the brightest rising star on the U.S. political scene today. Jindal is the youngest U.S. Governor . He is the only governor in the history of our nation of Indian descent. (Both of his parents immigrated from India before Bobby's birth and I believe still live in Baton Rouge, La.) Jindal truly ranks in the upper percentile of the population as one of the most intelligent, well educated people in the world. Jindal graduated from Baton Rouge High School (a Magnet school) at age 16, graduated from Brown University with honors in Biology and Public Policy at the age of 20, and then obtained a masters as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University at around age 23. His successful rise continued beyond the classroom. After a couple of years in the corporate world, Jindal was appointed to be the head of Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals at age 25, was appointed President of the University of Louisiana System at age 28, appointed U.S. Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of Health and Human Services at age 30, was elected to the U.S. Congress at age 33 and is currently is the Governor of Louisiana at only 36 years of age. How many people born in the 1970s (June 10, 1971) have that kind of resume already? Oh yeah, as if he has not been busy enough, he is also married and he and his wife have three children.
So what, in my opinion, drives Jindal? Jindal comes from a professional family and embraces those values but, there is a whole lot more to consider in answering this question. One unique and, I think, important factor in Jindal's blazing success is that his parents are retro immigrants. By "Retro Immigrants" I mean that they represent immigrants that embrace a pro-American philosophy. A philosophical perspective that was much more prevailent in the 1950s and before, than it is today. In the 1950s and before, immigrants were proud to become Americans. They embraced the culture and were often more patriotic than their U.S. born counterparts. A big component of that culture was that America was seen as a melting pot, I think we sometimes referred to it as the "Great Gumbo" in Louisiana, in which we took just a bit of the immigrant's past and folded that into what we defined as "American Values." Unfortunately, since that time we have learned that some of our core American values - like the then misnomered "protestant work ethic" are niether uniquely protestant, nor uniquely American and we just stopped teaching these clearly inaccurate ideas. President Reagan grew up before we "set the record straight" and for a brief time in history, he made us once again proud to be Americans. Fortunately, Governor Jindal was 9 years old when Reagan hit the national political scene so he was able to experience Reagan's vision of "America." Also, Jindal has clearly embraced the "protestant work ethic" even though he is a converted Catholic. Governor Jindal is a proud to be an American.
During Jindal's first gubernatorial campaign, an older Republican from Northeast Louisiana approached me and told me "You know 'Bobby' isn't his 'real' name. His real name is much harder to pronounce. And he is not an American Indian. His parents are from India. He is just trying to blend in." I was stunned that this kind of obvious bigotry still exists in this day and age even in Louisiana. Having been alerted to this bad attitude, I wrote and widely distributed an email that essentially called anyone voting against Jindal based on his parents national origin a racist and backwoods hick, but Jindal lost that election. He lost in Northeast Louisiana. By the way he won in Northwest Louisiana and won overwhelmingly in my home county/parish of Bossier. As I have mentioned, Governor Jindal adopted the name "Bobby" because of his admiration of the character Bobby Brady from the Brady Bunch television show. That fits really well with the idea that Jindal has embrace what makes us the same - being Americans. During gubernatorial debates there were attempts to goad Jindal into pandering to minorities based on his unique position as the only minority in the race. When these attempts were made Jindal showed that he is both a gentleman and an adept politician by side steping these attempts and reinforcing the concept that all of Louisiana's citizens can succeed only by working together. I bet that message plays even better on the national stage when Jindal inevitably runs for President. It reminds me of what drew so many to the Republican party when Reagan was king.
The other thing that is so appealing about Jindal as a leader is that he is not afraid of a challenge. (During the Reagan Era, we used to commonly think of "taking on any and all challenges" as part of our American culture.) Jindal is unafraid of a challenge and there are plenty of things that point to that: first, he could have been a medical doctor but chose to be a public servant; he could have had a long and successful career as a U.S. Congressman; he chose to be a politician in Louisiana (if you don't get that one, email me), and finally, Jindal's first initiative as Louisiana's governor is ethics reform. If that is not enough to convince you that Jindal is unafraid of a challenge, then I don't know what to tell you.
I am not sure whether Obama or McCain will be the next U.S. president and frankly, I do not hold out much hope that either of these very capable men will be able to right the track for our country. I am excited about the prospect of a President Jindal! His values are Retro, he reminds us of the pride that many of us felt in the Reagan years, and he definitely has what it will take (brains, courage, and experience) to lead the United States into a brighter future that we all long for.
By the way, you can check the public records, I have never contributed a penny to any of Bobby Jindal's campaigns. Part of that is because I am really cheap (a.k.a. fiscally conservative) and part of that is because I believe that when people are invited to shoudler the burdens of government by way of appointment, it shouldn't be a matter of buying your position. I may never be asked to help the Jindal administration achieve his goals, but I will help him anyway and if I do play an official role I and everyone else will know that it has nothing to do with my bank account.
