I was hesitant when I heard 60 Minutes was doing an interview with Governor Bobby Jindal because frankly, I didn’t think I could take sixty minutes of the sing-songy voice we heard on Tuesday night. But Jindal’s segment is only 12 minutes long. So I watched. And was a little bit impressed. Don’t believe me? Here, watch for yourself.
Watch CBS Videos Online
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m juxtaposing this clip with his speech earlier this week, but I actually kind of liked watching it. The segment shows him as an ethical, straight-edge, god-fearing, son-of-immigrants, birthed-his-third-child-himself family man. I think it was smart of him to do this interview so soon after the disastrous performance earlier this week, but I’m just not sure enough people watched it to nullify the effect.
It was interesting how Jindal and his wife tried to downplay the Indian factor when approached with questions of race. When asked if he felt any racial tension while being raised in Baton Rouge, he said he didn’t feel any and “they accept you based on who you are.” When asked about if his family maintained any Indian traditions, the couple responded, “Not too many. We’ve been here for so many years. We were raised as Americans.”
Personally, I think that maintaining Indian traditions is completely American and you should not have to marginalize one for the other. We are all Americans with a hyphenated back story. But I also think the question was poorly asked and I wonder if the couple would have responded differently if it was a Desi reporter asking the question with more nuance. I also wonder how much of what they say to media is political posturing verses what they feel about identity behind closed doors.
Overall, I think it was a decent bio-fluff interview with no real hard hitting questions from 60 Minutes. We didn’t learn too many new Jindal facts, though Manish listed some here. But I think what this interview did for me was remind me that there’s a brown* guy in politics gunning for Obama’s seat in seven years. But from the other side. And my kind of brown*. And that is kind of… remarkable.
*I say brown. Republicans say beige. Can someone explain to me why he’s the “beige hope”, not “brown hope”?
297 · Dhoni said
Well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, I guess.
Yes, far more “decent” to worship the Gandhi family and keep India poor over generations than to give in a little to the dumb people in America and teach a little bit of Creationism in schools to people who are going nowhere fast.
301 · Rahul said
rahul: there aint no coupe de ville hiding at the bottom of a cracker jack box
186 · onparkstreet said
I was born and brought up in India. I have lived and worked in most of the states in India. I am sure I am not a desi, but definitely of Indian origin. After reading the comments of many ABDs in this thread, I am surprised how Indian they feel. Many of them dislike America, White and Christianity because they could not date that cute white sexy american girl, or got taunted by racial comments.
May be I am not a ‘die hard India’ guy, because I never got to date any Indian girl. Not because I was ugly or boring, but because they had parent’s relatives preaching religion to them. That may be the reason why I dislike religious Indians. I was thrown racially abusive comments all my school days in India too. The location, race, religion really does not matter for abusive comments.
Typically irrational. Dont you think you should have also checked the other threads where the jindal-bashers have posted before jumping to this conclusion??
the presence or absence of a placebo effect (‘religion’) or background beliefs (‘religion’) may determine the answer to that question. your question is very deep, yaar. i really mean it; i bet some philosophers have devoted their careers to answering that one 🙂
302 · rob said
Alright, you win the irrelevant argument sweepstakes on this thread. And that’s saying something! 🙂
Woot–I’m touched by greatness!!
It was just an experiment with that naked fakir in my youth, yaar. I promise it is not a belief system. Anymore.
“kucch toh log kahenge”
“People will talk, That’s what they do Forget the venom of wagging tongues Or the night shall slip away in worry”
This is to encourage umber desi to make catholic-punjabi babies, straight from the heyday of Rajesh Khanna. I’m not sure if the appeal of this sort of stuff translates for those raised in the US, but I’m hoping Bollywood transcends comprehension (according to Karan Johar, it does).
If you understand Hindi, the song uses wit to criticize those who speculate about the lives of others, “What kind of a society would malign even Sita?”
Not that Jindal is Sita-esque; but he (and the twinkles in Umber Desi’s eyes) deserves fair criticism, rather than speculative psychoanalysis as many others on this thread have noted.
—
sn: nice comment on how memory is modified to accommodate cognitive dissonance (@ 205).
310 · portmanteau said
Come on! His petite waist, small bone structure, and delicate shoulders, certainly seems to inspire the loyalty of the vanar sena.
who’re you calling a macaca, slumdog?
Speaking of ridiculous attempts to psychoanalyze people’s motives. . .
well, rob’s recent testimony clearly contradicts you:
wow, A N N A, they’re not even here yet, and you’re helping them meet suitable persons from a similar background? You’ve shamed legions of aunties by being so ahead on the shaadi game. Lesser mortals can put their unborn progeny on pre-school waitlists 🙂
I’m glad that Sepia Destiny is working out for the unborn.
BTW, Suki, your boy got a nice book deal!
I can’t wait till he goes on the book tour. I’m more then willing to stand in line over night to meet him. I just hope that Jindal would study some of Blago interviews and new conferences to become a better public speaker or better hire Blago to speak for him.
It is “Supriya Bua,” not “Supriya,” “Aunt Supriya,” or “First cousin, once removed Supriya.”
You guys, you need to totally join this awesome Indian-bashing thread at daily kos. It’s a fun thread: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/2/12830/42423/114/703644