Jindal the wonk

Listening to Bobby Jindal is different from listening to almost any other Republican. For example, consider Jindal’s discussion with David Gregory yesterday on Meet the Press. Jindal consistently tries to win points by demonstrating that he has mastered the details of an issue. When Gregory tried to portray Jindal as inconsistent, Jindal mounted his defense by going further into the details. Judging by the lack of effective follow-up questions from Gregory, I’m inclined to say that Jindal one almost every round. Moreover, Jindal sounded like he was talking about what he knows, rather than reading off a set of talking points.

To be fair, I don’t know enough about the specific issues being addressed to say whether Jindal’s points are objectively valid. But his style is clearly different from many prominent Republicans and similar to to some of the most prominent Democrats. It will be very interesting to see how Jindal’s style plays on a national stage, although I don’t expect to have that chance before 2015 or 2016. But I would expect all those conservative columnists who condemned Sarah Palin as lacking substance to fall in love Jindal the same way that liberal columnists fell in love with Obama.