Louisiana Governor as McCain pick for VP ?

The Press Trust of India, of all places, has an article yesterday about Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal being on Senator McCain’s short list for Vice President and his running mate for the November race.  Senator McCain is traveling to Louisiana today to meet with the Governor.  < link to article >

The article talks about the favorable comments from Rush and Newt on Governor Jindal as a good choice for Senator McCain. 

I disagree.

Governor Jindal is a smart and charming politician and is clearly a rising star for the Republicans.  But McCain’s greatest challenge to Democrat Obama is his age and inexperience.  Clearly,  McCain at age 72 must run with a VP candidate that can act as President if necessary.  If McCain takes a 37 year old running mate with 3 years in Congress and one year as Governor, aren’t we giving Senator Obama a pass in the experience department ?  How can McCain press the “ready on Day 1” button when he is clearly offering Bobby Jindal as his “ready on Day 1” pick.

That said, there is much to admire in Governor Jindal and he will be a factor in Republican Presidential politics in the future, if not the present.  He is the son of Indian immigrants who arrived in the USA from Khanpura, India in 1970.  Their son, Piyush Jindal – he has been called Bobby since the age of four – was born in Baton Rouge in 1971.

Jindal graduated from Brown University and received his Masters degree at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.  He is married with three children.

in 1996, Jindal was appointed by the Louisiana Governor to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals.  At the time, the agency represented approximately 40% of the state budget.  Jindal as Secretary took Louisiana Medicaid from being on the ropes with a 400 million dollar deficit to three years of surpluses in excess of 200 million dollars.  He had the courage to close some local clinics to balance the budget and took some flack in his political campaigns from Democrats for his decisions. 

Jindal was President of the University of Louisiana system and was appointed by President Bush as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation, unanimously confirmed by the Senate (who couldn’t agree on the Sermon on the Mount).

Jindal ran for Governor of Louisiana, losing to Kathleen Blanco in 2003. He was elected to Congress in 2004  and 2006 – resigning to run for Governor with success in 2007.

Biographical data and photo from Wikipedia – full article < link here >

Newt Gingrich calls Bobby Jindal the most transformational Governor in America.  Read Newt’s article (July 8, 2008) < here >

You can hear Bobby Jindal’s victory speech (20 October 2007) when he was elected Governor < here > 

Bobby Jindal gets high marks for financial management and ethics reform.  He is bright and articulate and will be a Republican asset now and in the future.  Whether he is ready for prime time for this election cycle is another question.  To coin a phrase, we report, you decide.