Posted on 09/02/2008 11:09:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Stormy weather brought Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal into the full media limelight.
His gaze steady in the camera, Mr. Jindal offered calm consistency and a ready, accurate array of facts about rescue efforts and public safety to an eager press as Hurricane Gustav came and went through his state.
Mr. Jindal's ongoing presence in the news media in the past 72 hours provided a stark contrast to the dicey appearances of his predecessor Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat, and former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael D. Brown when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast three years ago.
Mrs. Blanco chose not to seek re-election last fall. But Mr. Brown's media savvy has improved since he was almost universally known as "Brownie," a nickname bestowed on him at the time by President Bush.
In appearances on NBC's "Today" and Fox News this week, a grayer Mr. Brown gave helpful perspective and context on the current hurricane response - and an appraisal of himself, not to mention the existence of his personal Web site.
"I spent 20 years in municipal government, successfully handled 160 presidentially declared disasters, everything from 9/11, the tsunami, four hurricanes in Florida during an election, 160 successes, and one failure," he told Fox.
"My hat's off to Bobby Jindal," Mr. Brown added.
The fact that Mr. Jindal's showcase address as "rising GOP star" before the Republican National Convention was scrapped earlier this week gave him an even greater showcase - this one without frills, and heavy with down-to-Earth sensibility.
"I don't think it matters at all. The only thing that matters is making sure our people are safe," Mr. Jindal said.
Mr. Jindal, 37, was as grave as the first-responders who often surrounded him on a makeshift dais in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and elsewhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
B B B But I thought he had no experience and was a horse race guy.
Governor Jindal did an outstanding job with this. What a difference when compared with what we saw during Katrina. It was nice to see him put a boot in Nagin’s ass and tell him, “Not this time, Ray!”
The Katrina affair was the most absurd political situation I have ever seen. Bush highly recommeneded that Blanco treat the situation as a disaster because the state reacted so slowly. The storm passed, and the damage was not terrible until the levies broke. The disaster was unfathomable. Somehow, Bush decided this is the time to accespt blame, and his presidency essentially ended at that point.
Now we learn “Brownie” had 20 years experence and was not a political hack, as the media said. Of course, we in FL knew that because FEMA was very effective here in 2004.
Why is Jindal a “star” and Sarah Palin “inexperienced”? Palin has served the same amount of time as governor, and is 7 years older than Jindal. Pure sexism. Pure liberal orthodoxy.
the feds can help but only if the state and locals do their job.
But craziness has to be expected when a cat 5 hurricane drives straight into a city that’s under sea level! What I don’t understand is why did people move back to NO when the same thing can happen again.
I really hate to steal what others say but FReepers are the smartest people on the net. I remember one FReeper posting during Katrina, “People who study the oceans don’t live near them.” Now that was spot on IMHO. I live in Arizona and keep hoping that California continues to hang on. LOL!
both Palin and Jindal are great but Mark Sanford would be my pick if I had my way. MBA, experience in the private sector (real estate investment and not someone who had to lay off people), 6 years in the House and re-elected governor...a real reformer...looks cool...
He didn’t help mccain in a Blitzer interview but if you really want to win, you have to be proactive and prepare your dream VP guy yourself instead of expecting him to make it work for you.
I don’t think McCain’s team was very proactive with Palin either and we had the sad scene of Tucker Bounds who didn’t know his facts. McCain had to ‘boycott’ Campbell brown, not because he had anything against her but because they had to get their PR act fixed up first.
Most of New Orleans is no more below sea level than Savannah, Charleston, or Miami. The original city never flooded. The parts that did were originally swamps-aka wetlands—that were drained in the 19th century. This was deemed good public policy at the time but turned out to be a disastrous error. Even now there are people, including many on FR, who don’t see the value of wetlands. If the backwaters around New Orleans had been left as a buffer, Katrina would have been a minor meteorological footnote.
Even more to the point, New Orleans was not always as vulnerable as it is now—again, the wetlands loss has left it exposed.
People didn’t suddenly decide, “hey, let’s go live below sea level.” The conditions that allowed Katrina to happen occurred gradually, over decades. And it’s politically unfeasible for the US government to just abandon a city. It won’t happen with New Orleans, nor will it happen with San Francisco after the “Big One” hits, and it eventually will.
What will happen and is already happening, is that it will get more and more difficult to get insurance, people will get tired of evacuating, and decide to relocate on their own, probably someplace nearby that’s more defensible. This is already happening—the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. But tell the residents of a major city “sorry, you’re on your own?” Never happen IMHO.
Bring all these young intelligent principled conservatives to the forefront.Sanford, Palin, Jindal,Coburn,Demint et.al. The talent on our side is amazing.
Use the convention to politely retire the old NE RINOs and bid them an adieu.
yeah but why didn’t we have this talent during our primaries??????
the govt couldn’t abandon it but people could. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
and this should work out BETTER for him. Far more eyes were on him speaking as Governor than would have been on him speaking at the convention. That and he was doing, not just talking.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.