Bobby Jindal's response to Obama

Poor Bobby Jindal, said Andrew Malcolm in the Los Angeles Times. He “was toast before he walked down that lonely hallway” in the Louisiana governor’s residence to deliver the Republican response to President Obama’s big speech. After Obama’s big show on Capitol Hill, the young, personable Jindal, “a rookie on the national stage,” looked small. And his message—America’s strength is its people, not its government—got lost (click here for video of Jindal's response).

"The follow-up to an elaborately staged joint session of Congress is always going to look diminished," said Michelle Malkin in her blog. But Jindal's delivery was fine, and his assurance that the American spirit would triumph was something we needed to hear. "I'll take Bobby Jindal's genuine faith in American entrepreneurship over Barack Obama's fear-mongering-turned-faux-Reaganism any day."

"Look," said Jonathan Capehart in The Washington Post, "Republicans have a problem and there was nothing Jindal could have done to make it better tonight. Obama is wildly popular," and, according to MSNBC, McCain voters were positive as consistently as Obama voters throughout the president's speech. Jindal's a rising Republican star, but he needed to do more than say "Americans can do anything" over and over—and he didn't rise to the occasion.

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You'll be seeing more of Bobby Jindal, said Michael Gerson, also in the Post. Some say he's the GOP's Obama, Rush Limbaugh thinks he's the next Ronald Reagan. Actually, Jindal's "supremely wonkish" like Bill Clinton, which makes him the GOP's "anti-Palin." At this point in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, "no Republican can be considered more than the flavor of the month. But this is an appealing one."

If you want to compare Jindal to someone, said Jason Linkins in The Huffington Post, try Kenneth, the network page in NBC's 30 Rock (click here for the video). "If it wasn't such a dead-on comparison it would be catty to say out loud." It's hard to believe Republicans think Americans will fall for someone with that kind of aw-shucks earnestness.