Jindal's GOP Response Flops

Critics slam guv's 'amateurish' delivery of Republican rebuttal
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 25, 2009 3:57 AM CST

Pundits are split on the substance of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's Republican rebuttal to President Obama's speech, but most agree that his flat delivery revealed a politician not ready for prime time:

  • His speech was as patronizing "as if he were talking to kindergartners," writes Andrew Sullivan in the Atlantic, who has received plenty of emails comparing Jindal to Kenneth from 30 Rock.

  • Jindal "seemed more like a high school student giving a valedictory speech than a potential future leader of the party," writes Philip Klein at the American Spectator. "He may be brilliant, but presentation matters, too."
  • Conservatives were let down by Jindal's failure to provide "a full-throated response" to Obama, writes Kathryn Jean Lopez in National Review Online.
  • Jindal is one of his party's great hopes, Alex Koppelman writes at Salon, but his "amateurish" performance "was not a good start to Jindal 2012."
(More Barack Obama stories.)

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