I think you hit the salient point: Jindal’s speech reads well, bu he did a poor job delivering it.
Admittedly, anyone delivering the “opposition response” has their work cut out for them; the hallway of a governor’s mansion is no substitute for the House Chamber and all the trappings of the presidency.
Still, I was disappointed in Jindal’s performance. His sing-song delivery sounded like someone who just graduated from the Columbia School of Broadcasting and is trying to avoid a monotone at all costs.
I actually heard Jindal’s speech on both radio and TV. I was in my car when he started and watched the rest on television, after I got home. It was slightly better on television, but he’s got a long way to go in terms of delivery and style. Sadly, those points count for a lot in today’s political environment.
Clearly, someone in the GOP establishment didn’t bother to “screen” Jindal’s speech skills before tonight’s performance. Instead, we gave the Dims a talking point. All the press covearge will be geared to how “poorly” Jindal performed on the national stage, with no regard for what he actually said.
And that’s a damn shame. I’ve seen Jindal in other TV forums (Meet the Press, addressing his state during hurricane emergencies) and he did just fine. And I still believe he would clean the Annointed One’s clock in a debate. But tonight was not his finest hour.
Au contraire. I watched on FOX and the audio was atrocious, but at least Bobby looked us in the eye; something that the MasterOratorBator never did.
Yes, he has a Loosiana accent which doesn’t quite qo with his Indian IT nerd face, but I thought the delivery was great.
BFD, we have socialism to fight and there is a lot bigger thiings to worry about. JMHO.
Jindal’s a great Governor, and I am sure a bad Jindhal speech is more conservative and better than any speech McCain made, and no worse than all the other forgettable ‘response’ speeches that nobody watches.
I didn’t have too much of a problem with the overall speech, but as a recipient of the Catastrophism Ping List here at FR, I was a little distressed at his putting down the money for volcano monitoring. He is very aware of the New Orleans environmental risk, but obviously has no idea what the volcano risks are in this country.
The former residents of the Tootle Valley could tell him a thing or two about volcanic flooding when Mt. St. Helens erupted, only killing between 50 and 100 people. It would have been more, but fortunately it blew before the public got tired of listening to the warnings of the volcano experts. The Armaro lahar in South America killed 23,000 people in a few minutes. We have valleys in our own country that could be equally devastated if a volcano erupted suddently. Signs of old lahars are more than 50 miles long in valleys of the Cascade volcanos. Yellowstone has been acting up a bit in recent months.
When Mt. Pinitubo blew and destroyed our major air base in the Philippines, the volcanologists had a major problem getting enough equipment to adequately monitor the volcano as it was ramping up. They had to borrow from our American monitoring areas leaving them underwatched. One seventh of the world’s population is at risk from volcanos, about the same as those at risk from wind storms, like New Orleans population.
I thought Jindal did fine.
He emphasizes the wrong word in each sentence.
I say that as someone who wishes Jindal well and recognizes that he has good things to offer the Republican Party.
He just needs to work on his communication.
Don’t take this personal, but I consider Jindal’s speech to be one of the best I’ve heard in over a decade. He touched on his connection to the immigrant issue. It was a crafty way to neutralize Obama’s attempt to claim hero status.
Then Jindal moved into the realm of big government and personal responsibility. He explained why big government is bad, taking money from taxpayers is bad, and why the reverse is better.
His delivery was incredibly good.
“I’ve seen Jindal in other TV forums (Meet the Press, addressing his state during hurricane emergencies) and he did just fine.”
And he’ll be fine in the future, too. I think he was judged a bit harshly last night — it’s very easy to forget he’s only 37. He has a long time to hone his speaking ability. He’s already outstanding on the give-and-take of interviews - far better and more thoughtful than Obama. Jindal is a proven leader; he showed that during the hurricane evac last year. He has his head on straight on the other issues as well.
Obama’s nothing but an empty suit who gives a great speech — nothing more.
Yep, you’re right. He seems like a great guy and has good things to say, but his delivery was lacking. I have seen him in interviews, and he does really well, but speech giving is not his strong point. I wonder if that’s something he can get some training on or if it’s just something you have or you don’t. I personally care more about what a person believes than how well they speak, but unfortunately this election proves most people go for the good speaker.
I suppose it’s possible people will be so tired of the slick, no substance, dishonest, great teleprompter reader we have now, and go for someone who has great ideas. Jindal did come across as honest and optimistic, just not a good speech giver. Maybe some practice and training can correct this. While Palin is my favorite, we can use all the great conservative up and comers we can get right now.
He HAD to know how important this was, and his delivery failed.
We want a candidate that reminds us of Ronald Reagan, not Slum Dog Millionaire.
Flame away...I'm being honest.
I’m sure that giving an address in an empty room to a camera is hard. Few have been good at it. Jindal needs to improve here for sure.
But imagine him in the debates against Obama. Jindal is pretty good off the cuff. And, as we saw during the last hurricane, he can handle a crisis.
Exactly.
Is it a coincidence that the GOP also failed to properly prepare their other "rising star" during the Presidential campaign, Sarah Palin, as well?? OR cover her afterwards?
If you ask me, the GOP "leadership" has to be gutted from top-to-bottom or else it's finished. It's a sham that's been co-opted by a Globalist cabal.
Yeah,
Jindal’s performance is going to put a damper on those who were already touting the 30-something Governor as our next President.
Jindal needs to be seasoned for a few more elections. This was pretty awful.
It would be nice if there was evidence of some original thinking on the part of the GOP.
Why not to the Republican response to the speech in an auditorium filled with 5,000 people friendly to the GOP message? A hot audience reacting to Jindal would have elevated the performance, and may have inspired Jindal to a better performance.
The GOP really does plod along, married to convention. It’s the way it’s always been done, why change? The GOP needs a shot in the arm - I think if anyone in the GOP had a genuinely fresh and intelligent idea, it would die of loneliness. And I speak specifically of presentation and strategy, not substantive ideas.
Even Mr. Rogers never sounded like that!!!!! And Mr. Rogers spoke to children for a living. Jindal needs to speak like a man, and not like he's reading a children's fairy tale. I've never heard anything like it! A grown man talking to adults as if they were in nursery school.
I dont think the delivery matters. He laid an excellent foundation and the authenticity of his family’s immigrant experience versus the fraudulent nature of the family and non-native birth of the One will increasingly become evident over the next four years as the One flounders and makes things worse.
Jindal sounded like algore. Not in what he said but in the way he said it.
The latter can be fixed with coaching and practice. He's a young man with a good future ahead of him.