Via Andrew Sullivan, a smart quote from Ross Douthat regarding Bobby Jindal’s prospects for 2012:
If anything, I think the way the McCain campaign has finished up — and the way the media has covered it — works to Jindal’s advantage in 2012: Conservatives are going to be extremely eager to prove that they only hate Obama because he’s a radical, not because they’re racist, and what better way to demonstrate that than to nominate a dark-skinned conservative with a funny-sounding name? Indeed, much of the current affection for Jindal among movement conservatives – and especially in talk-radio land – can be traced to precisely such a yearning for a conservative Obama: A multicultural prince who channels Ronald Reagan, and whose nomination would at least reduce the taint of racism that clings to the American Right.(Ross Douthat, link)
Yes, that’s why I thought, many months ago, that Jindal would have made a good VP choice for McCain. (I expect it will come out, in months to come, that McCain specifically asked Jindal to join the ticket this past summer and Jindal turned him down.).
The above argument is in response to a point from Christopher Orr at The New Republic that I think many on the left (including our own Ennis) have agreed with:
Though rarely explicit (and certainly not exclusive) a large portion of the GOP’s closing argument this cycle has been to stoke white, working class fear and suspicion of the Other. The dark-skinned man with the foreign-sounding name may be a Muslim, or a socialist, or a friend of terrorists, or a racial huckster, or a fake U.S. citizen, or some other vague kind of “radical.” You may never be sure which he is (maybe all of the above), but in your gut you simply don’t “know” him the way you know the other candidates. This is not, to put it mildly, a message likely to benefit Bobby Jindal. (Christopher Orr, link)
For Douthat, by contrast, the attempt to “otherize” Obama is a combination of things, involving not just his skin color and name, but also his academic background, history as an urban community organizer, and membership in a liberation theology church:
I think this vastly, vastly overestimates the extent to which the attempt to “Otherize” Obama has been about race qua race (and racism qua racism), and vastly underestimates the extent to which it’s been about the way Obama’s name, ancestry and skin color have dovetailed with other aspects of his background – from his liberation-theology church to the academic-lefty and urban-machine milieu in which he spent much of his early political career – that the GOP would have tried to play up against any Democratic candidate (and especially in a year when the party didn’t have much else going for it). (Ross Douthat, link)
All in all, an interesting exchange.
I think it is certainly true that the GOP has been stoking up xenophobia (have you seen this?) through its attempt to smear Obama as “palling around with terrorists” (Rashid Khalidi being the latest smear), and with the whole “Who is the real Barack Obama?” line of thought.
But Douthat’s point of view — that this is merely a cynical, tactical attack, not based on fundamental beliefs amongst the leadership — gives me some hope that this will not become a chronic line of attack should Obama win the election next week.
The problem that a Jindal 2012 scenario is not that different from the problems McCain had this year. McCain made his reputation has a centrist Republican, but since Obama was making a strong play for the center, McCain felt he could only eke out a narrow victory by appealing to the right’s holy warriors. Would Jindal run as the sharp technocrat that I believe he is, or will he play up his born-again personality, as he seemed to do more and more in order to get elected governor?
Man, I hope the GOP nominates Jindal in 2012. What better way would there be to ensure eight years of Obama than a Palin-Jindal ticket in 2012?
Personally I think neither Jindal nor Palin are viable on the national stage. They both have their appeal to portions of the conservative base (evangelicals and other social conservatives) but neither will ever be able to generate the sort of mainstream appeal to independent voters that a Bush, Clinton or now Obama can, largely because their beliefs are so far to the right.
Four years from now both will just be two more small-state governors hoping to score a seat in the Senate, while Mitt Romney and David Petraeus will slug it out for GOP nomination.
As for Douthat, he’s always eager to attribute some sort of cynical high-mindedness to his fellow conservatives. If you read his blog, you’ll realize he’s pretty disgusted with the whole Palin approach and he wants to believe the GOP is something better than it is. I’m not sure that working for the Atlantic is the best place to get exposure to the kinds of voters that make up the GOP base.
spottie,
I agree that Douthat seems disgusted with the Palin approach but he also tries to distance the GOP from what their local/state affiliates have done (in the advancement of the muslim/terrorist image) which I think is entirely unnecessary if the GOP is currently seen only as advancing the ‘other’ image based on his living and advancing in a ‘liberal milieu.’ He does point out the ‘dovetailing’ of both his determined characteristics (foreign name, dark skin) with his lefty academia/community organizing and that IMO, as opposed to focusing on the racial/religious otherizing, is what’s really disheartening. One can plan against focused campaigns but not against free-associative mud slinging–although the grab-bag Obama attacks don’t seem to be working.
If so, it was a good idea that Jindal turned him down since his first shot this time would have probably turned out to be a failure due to voter disllusionment with Bush/Republican legacy and voter enthusiasm for Obama. Next time he may have a greater chance to win (probably even Presidency) considering that voters, having seen the Democratic party/Obama rule for four years, want a change.
I mean, ssshyeah, Bobby does sound really foreign. (Yes, I know it’s not his real name). Hmm, and unless you say Jindal the way people in Louisiana say it (Jennd-ALL), that sounds pretty foreign too. But you know what doesn‘t sound foreign? The utter hypocrisy of certain conservatives pretending to care about multiculturalism.
5 · Faiqa said
hey now, there are quite a few ‘liberals’ who don’t care a whit about multiculturalism (like Frank Furedi and myself).
Wow, that Obama guy is devious indeed. While he himself seems to favor class-based affirmative action, he’s getting conservative “intellectuals” to now say, and wholeheartedly stand behind the reasoning that members of historically and socially disadvantaged groups should be preferred for a position to redress past wrongs, and to make these positions more representative of the general populace! I guess this is how he plans to inveigle his secret plans of reparations, post civil rights redistributive socialism (“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!”), and eventual takeover of America The Great by minorities, that makes John McCain and Sarah Palin wet their pants, and quiver in their socks.
5· Faiqa said
squints and prays
Dear God,
Please, please, please let us not rehash the “Bobby name”-bullshit, because it’s pointless and insulting to the approximately 14 Sikh kids from Yuba, Modesto and Sunnyvale I knew at Davis named that (apparently because of some movie from the 70s their Moms all loved). I’m pretty sure that Faiqa doesn’t intend to start that tatti-storm, but it’s entirely possible based on past bloggy performance (some restrictions apply, YMMV).
Please let us not rehash it because it’s tired, we’ve already suffered through plenty of it on SM and this Malayalee with a “white” name gets pissed as hell at how it otherizes those of us who are just as furrin-lookin’ (and furry) as the rest of you and yet not treated one whit better even though we possess sell-out names.
Oh, and please forgive me for breaking ## 1, 3, 9 and 10 yesterday (sorry, but even my homeboy JC would agree that our neighbor is SMOKIN’).
Oh, oh! And please let me find a new job which is on a metro stop and lucrative enough to support my J.Crew habit, give me the discipline to actually finish NaNoWriMo this year and let Sheed, I mean the Pistons go to the finals. Thank you so much! Your humble, half-wretched handmaiden,
Anna
P.S. …also please say entha onda vishayshum to my pops. Peace. In the middle east. Oh yeah, can we have that too.
here you go. extra strength. just like grandma used to make.
Rahul, you sexy thang! You said “inveigle”.
ANNA : “based on past bloggy performance?” I’ve never been anything but endearingly sycophantic to everyone on this blog. Anyway, no that wasn’t my intent. I resent that implication. Plus it was a joke, you sell out. LOL. TOTALLY KIDDING.
Anna, as a former Portland fan, I seriously can’t believe this. I’m so offended right now. 🙂
i read the chris orr stuff. i’m reminded of something from 2000 during the primaries: bill bradley’s campaign held back on an endorsement from michael jordan reportedly because they were worried that whites might turn against them. many thought this was ridiculous, and that bradley had drunk too much of the white-people-are-evil-racist kool-aid. of course racism and xenophobia are issues in the united states, but
1) barack obama is probably going to become president of the united states
2) bobby jindal is governor of louisiana
if you removed these two facts from the table, and asked people like chris orr the probability that they might occur, i think most of these people would deny that americans could plausibly get beyond racism. i think that the fact that these two phenomena are real suggests that the leftish model of american race relations is far too simple. this obviously isn’t a color-blind nation, but there are things that matter more than race.
this is pretty obvious in this election, there are plenty of reports of people who are obviously racist by their preferred usage of terms in regards to obama’s racial identity, who are claiming to vote for him. that’s because race isn’t all that matters.
as for bobby jindal, his is right now not a Right nation. he’ll have to reposition himself. i agree with others that the palin-jindal ticket would be a joke, he’s too smart, she’s too dull.
If McCain loses there is going to be a battle between Ross’s side and Rush’s side. I hope Ross’s side (along with David Frum, David Brooks, Reihan Salaam and George Will) wins this argument and moves the party to the center. The southrn strategy that worked so well for Nixon and Reagan is no longer going to win majorities for the republicans. They are slowly losing their grip on the midwest and even the west (look at Colorado and even Montana).
Jindal is clearly on Rush’s side currently. If he can position himself in the center (more libertarian than conservative) he has a good chance of being the nominee of the republican party by appealing to the west and the midwest. Given his name recognition in Lousiana and neighboring states he can win enough votes in the south. He is still unknown within major regions and he can easily repostion himself without being tagged a flip flopper (like Romney). Palin, Romney and Huckabee are going to challenge him if he decides to run but he can win from the center like McCain.
Ross’s side and Rush’s side.
i suspect this will be a lopsided battle. ross doesn’t have he numbers in the near-term. it seems likely that the GOP will have to reconfigure via years in he “wilderness.” if reality blows up in the dems face, all bets are off.
apparently, mccain and palin are not the only ones with wet pants and quivering toes 😉
Razib is right. Ross’s side is part of the “Georgetown cocktail party” sect as McCain likes to call it. They write columns and fill think-tanks and most of them are voting for Obama.
Rush’s side is busy fighting our wars, drilling our oil and ruining our international image. They’ve voted Republican since Goldwater and they aren’t going anywhere.
bystander you’re a hoot. let’s talk about your quivering toes.
9 · Puliogre in da USA said
That’s actually on my iPod. No lie. 🙂
12 · daycruz said
Why are you offended? Aside from the fact that your jerseys are fug? 😉
11 · Faiqa said
I knew it wasn’t your intent. 😉 Just thought I’d do the needful and prevent unnecessary teeth-gnashing/hair loss. In any case, I knew you saw me in that twisted, inaccurate way. KIDDING.
Ross’s side is not just intellectuals but lot of Sam’s club republicans (I am using his term). They need a charismatic leader but a lot of NE republicans will warm upto someone with a libertarian social and fiscal mindset. If McCain loses, 2010 is going to be intersting. If Obama’s administration does not live upto the hype republicans will gain house and senate seats in which case Rush and his ditto-heads will still be the influential block. On the other hand, if republicans do not make substantial gains in the mid-term elections Ross’s team will start gaining on the ditto heads.
i’d like to see palin in a saree
I’d disagree with the idea that a Jindal / Palin ticket would never fly at the national level. On the contrary, I think that would fire up evangelicals like never before in the history of this country.
It’s unlikely though, because I think both personalities have their eye on the Oval Office. So they’ll run against each other in the primary, but not be on the same ticket in 2012.
Er, “oh-twelve.”
22 · Salil Maniktahla said
Erm, like Rod Parsley and John Hagee? I’m pretty sure they fall on the “The Catholic Church is the Great Whore of Satan” fringe of the Protestant discourse on Catholicism.
not even on the phone ?
I am curious as to how Desis who have “white” names and sound non-Desi fare on the phone. Two weeks ago, while interviewing with a recruiter, he wondered which part of the world I hailed from. The hybrid Madrasi Mallu accent must have put him off 🙂
say if you Anita Sood and sounded like a Southern belle does it make a difference on the phone ? Do people talk to you are a “real American”
Jindal wont win but he must try to win. He is the first big time Desi pollie. Paves the way for the next generation of Desi pollies.
10 · bess said
Although my artless and incorrect usage of the word puts my aphrodisiacal linguistic abilities on par with Otto’s.
All pending white guilt is over after this election, no matter who wins. Expect the next few Presidents to be white males. Jindal has no chance, he is not extreme enough for the religious right-wing GOP base nor can he use the race card. Competence is usually not a Presidential prerequisite.
24 · melbourne desi said
Not sure about that. Maybe it paves the way for more liberal Christian desi candidates but a viable Hindu/agnostic/atheist desi president is unthinkable. A favorable showing for Romney (Mormons are not considered Christian by most Catholics or Protestants)might actually be a better indicator. I would expect to see a Sikh or Hindu head of state in UK before the US. I think there’s more racism in the UK but I think faith is much less a concern there. Being a Christian is a prereq in the US
“I mean, ssshyeah, Bobby does sound really foreign.”
…sneered the south asian with the Arabic [Faiqa] name.
Mate, I said Desi pollies. Desi does not mean Hindu 🙂
29 · melbourne desi said
Right, but they are a minority so I think it is worth noting that the major faith community among Indians have 0% chance of winning a natl election
They write columns and fill think-tanks and most of them are voting for Obama.
that’s probably not true. e.g., ross & reihan themselves are voting for mccain. most of the think-tank DC conservatives have a vested interest in the republican party. bill weld, colin powell, jim leach, etc. are a totally different set.
Ross’s side is not just intellectuals but lot of Sam’s club republicans (I am using his term). They need a charismatic leader but a lot of NE republicans will warm upto someone with a libertarian social and fiscal mindset. If McCain loses, 2010 is going to be intersting. If Obama’s administration does not live upto the hype republicans will gain house and senate seats in which case Rush and his ditto-heads will still be the influential block. On the other hand, if republicans do not make substantial gains in the mid-term elections Ross’s team will start gaining on the ditto heads.
if you read ross & reihan’s book their own prescription is for a socially conservative + fiscally moderate party. IOW, totally not libertarian. reihan told me last year that they felt that that sector wasn’t being addressed, and that was the task of grand new party.
McCain sure knows how to showcase America as a land of opportunity. He gave a crony loving, power abusing, unethical, Bush-level incurious, Cheney-level power-hungry, right wing nut her national break and the opening to become prime Republican material in 2012, and now he’s opened up a whole new world beyond snakes, sinks and cracks to Joe the Plumber!
As Rudy Giuliani would say, “Only in America!”
rahul, WELCOME TO THE REAL AMERIKA! who’s the weirdo now???
I’m not really up on this stuff, but in what way is Jindal “born-again”? Isn’t he Catholic? I don’t think they go in for that “born-again” stuff. Maybe I’m wrong? But, I’ve never met a “born again” Catholic. Of course, I do live in a bubble! (Thankfully. . . .)
IMHO, Jindal owns the GOP, lock stock and barrel, once McCain/Palin lose. Woot, Jindal 2012! Happy days are here again! 😉
34 · rob said
No, “Happy Days” would mean the cool kid will win. You want something far more stodgy like, oh, the Brady Bunch. Or maybe “Different Strokes”, if you’re going with this post’s articulation of the new found republican affection for affirmative action with minorities frontin’ for rich white guys. Although, at the end of the day, we know Jindal always did like Exorcist, all the more for a protagonist named Regan.
I’m not really up on this stuff, but in what way is Jindal “born-again”? Isn’t he Catholic? I don’t think they go in for that “born-again” stuff. Maybe I’m wrong? But, I’ve never met a “born again” Catholic. Of course, I do live in a bubble! (Thankfully. . . .)
this is technically right. in fact, the religiously illiterate and liberal* often elide the real differences between catholics and evangelicals. and religion does matter in the details, it probably weighed romney down in the primaries. but, catholicism is a lot less exotic than mormonism (evangelicals consider catholics christians, they don’t usually consider mormons christians), and since the late 1970s there has been an ecumenical alliance on the right between catholics, evangelicals and orthodox jews. the moral majority had catholic involvement from the get-go. aside from some real extremists anti-catholicism is pretty much totally marginalized by anti-secular humanism among conservative protestants. better the tiara than the turk!
35 · Rahul said
“Good Times” are coming
Hey folks, I was just flipping channels before the game, and chanced upon a movie with this black guy whose voice shimmied out from the screen like molten butter. I was just about to move on thinking that it was probably Morgan Freeman doin’ his thin’ again for some grizzled white guy, but whaddya know, this movie seemed to have a black hero. It has laughter! It had tears! It had dramatic tension! Red button? Blue button? Push the wrong one and America will be destroyed! Exciting stuff from some fresh faced skinny guy with a funny name. So, can somebody help me out here? Who is the real Barack Obama? Has anybody really asked that about him so far?
Early “dog-whistle” for Jindal 2012? 😉
37 · Manju said
Don’t know exactly why, but this seems like an appropriate place for a shoutout to that old curmudgeon, Archie Bunker (and all those third graders at Gladys Wood elementary school, you betcha!)
If the Republican party puts up Palin-Jindal in 2012, I am going to write off the Republican party as dead. They don’t have anything else besides an appeal to (what I consider) the ultra-religious base. Don’t they have anything to run on besides “God guns and gays”? Don’t they realize that voters know that this country has bigger issues to work on? Although I am glad that the Republican party is progressive enough to even consider a woman and a brown guy with a funny name as presidential hopefuls. However, their attempt at multi-culturism is just window dressing. It’s icing on the same old manure. Do they think they can fool the independents?
lol, I’m going to have to dispute Jindal’s “multiculturalness.” The man’s a diehard Catholic and would be an All-American type if he had played footbal and acquired a trophy blonde wife. Jindal would of been the multicultural canidate back in 1900.
Not Italian, not Russian but 19th century terms. That’s what gets my toes in a curl.
It’s interesting when people don’t do the math on race in comparing Jindal vs. Obama. All else equal (please note this phrase), when talking about race, Obama was able to win the primary because he was able to turn out massive numbers of Black people. Jindal has no similar sized portion of the Republican elecorate from which to draw on during the primaries, though he would have a financially wealthy portion of the electorate.
So if you had to choose someone to run against an incumbent Obama and were picking between Jindal and Romney and Palin and Huckabee and whatever other people they find out there, why would they pick a man of color against an incumbent man of color when there are other identity-based strategies available to them, especially since the race barrier would already have been broken and in a more significant way? Who exactly would Jindal be drawing?
The only ways in which Jindal and Obama are comparable is age, class, amonunt of experience, and gender. In that sense, thinking about Jindal as the Republican nomineee is like choosing Palin as VP- it’s clumsy symbolism that I think doesn’t bear out the electoral math given who the person is.
But I’m usually wrong abotu this stuff, so who knows? 🙂
“But Douthat’s point of view — that this is merely a cynical, tactical attack, not based on fundamental beliefs amongst the leadership — gives me some hope that this will not become a chronic line of attack should Obama win the election next week.”
You are dreaming.
32 · Rahul said
Zounds! (that’s for you, bess) First, Sarah Palin throws McCain under the bus, now seems like McCain’s other erstwhile protege can’t be bothered to give him the time of day. It’s tough times indeed for gramps. Next thing you know sloppy Joe might start saying he respects Obama!
“i’d like to see palin in a saree”
Manju, you have an odd thing about that–I believe you’ve mentioned it on another thread. Let me indulge my little fantasy here–I feel a paperback novel coming on…here it is…
… I’ll bet after this grueling campaign, she would really be up for a safari in India (if they don’t have them, invent one), except you could only use animal tranquilizer guns on the tigers, being as they are an endangered species. Don’t worry about your safety — she’s seems to be better shot than Cheney was, and after all, she’d only be packing a tranquilizer gun. Then, after the hunt, she dons a sari and enjoys martinis on the veranda. I haven’t figured out where the husband and kids are, or if she will adopt more — kids, not husbands — while in India, but her future son-in-law the hockey player will learn cricket. It will be a strong, multi-cult selling point in her next national move, which is as sure to come as the Nome thaw or another oil spill.
this is a work in progress
ooh Shakespeare…pants are wet.
47 · Calm Overview said
Thanks, CO…I feel something coming on too
Rahul 46. Quoting yourself. Commenturbation.