McCain-Jindal

On February 25 of this year, I did a brief post on some possibilities for McCain's running mate.

Some discounted Bobby Jindal as an option in the comments, but I held out:

"...he's going to need something to spice up his ticket and put him back in play in a big way. That's where a woman or minority, especially a relatively younger one, would shake things up."

As my roommate Phil and a few others can attest, I've been arguing for some time now that Jindal represents a better choice than most people would suspect, mainly given his ability to throw a new, uncertain element into the election dynamic. At this point, I think McCain needs a seismic shift to get people talking about him and considering him in a new light. A little Jindalquake would get things shaking appropriately.

Indeed, Bill Kristol provides additional fodder for the concept with some evidentiary tidbits in a NYT column today:

Maybe that’s why, in separate conversations last week, no fewer than four McCain staffers and advisers mentioned as a possible vice-presidential pick the 36-year-old Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal. They’re tempted by the idea of picking someone so young, with real accomplishments and a strong reformist streak.

It might also be a way to confront the issue of McCain’s age (71), which private polls and focus groups suggest could be a real problem. A Jindal pick would implicitly acknowledge the questions and raise the ante. The message would be: “You want generational change? You can get it with McCain-Jindal — without risking a liberal and inexperienced Obama as commander in chief.”

I think a McCain-Jindal ticket would be a brilliant, albeit necessarily risky move. Given the generic ballot, McCain is facing a "what do I have to lose?" scenario where he will almost certainly go down unless he plays an unorthodox game.

Adding Jindal to the ticket immediately calls the current playing field into question. Suddenly, the Republican ticket includes a young minority with a tad bit of executive experience who won convincingly in a Southern state and has rammed through ethics reform immediately upon taking office in a notoriously corrupt locale. Oh yeah, and he's a Rhodes Scholar. And Rush Limbaugh has called him the next Ronald Reagan. And he made a nice little appearance on Leno the other night:



Jindal's inclusion would seriously complicate the options and angles of attack for whichever Democrat ultimately wins the long bloody slog to Denver. It would open the race up with a new significant factor, something McCain desperately needs to do if he wants to avoid a Goldwater-style defeat in November.

This is an election cycle full of the potential for historic firsts. Tossing Jindal into the mix, green as he may be, doesn't seem quite as "out of the question" as it might in a different, more normal time.

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