Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has made no secret of his presidential ambitions, and as msnbc’s Kasie Hunt reported yesterday, the two-term Republican took a formal step towards a national campaign by forming an exploratory committee.
Speaking about the committee launch, Gov. Jindal said: “For some time now, my wife Supriya and I have been thinking and praying about whether to run for the Presidency of our great nation. We’ll make a final decision in June, after the legislative session in Louisiana ends.“If I run, my candidacy will be based on the idea that the American people are ready to try a dramatically different direction. Not a course correction, but a dramatically different path.”
Of course, when Jindal promises a “dramatically different path,” he almost certainly means it. In fact, he told Louisiana voters largely the same thing eight years ago, and they believed him.
They were not, however, pleased with the results. As Jindal himself told a New Hampshire audience last month, “I’m here to tell you, my popularity has certainly dropped at least 15 to 20 points” after he implemented his governing agenda.
In other words, the governor promised voters he’d pursue a conservative policy agenda, and once he delivered on that promise, the conservative residents of his red state in the Deep South discovered they hated his policies.
Jindal 2016?
Adding insult to injury, a statewide poll released last week found President Obama with a higher favorability rating in Louisiana than Jindal.
President Obama lost Louisiana by 17 points during his re-election campaign.
Writing at the American Conservative in February, Rod Dreher reflected a bit on Jindal’s national ambitions. “I keep telling my friends in the national media that if you think Bobby Jindal has a chance in hell of becoming president, send a reporter down to spend a few days in Louisiana, seeing what condition he’s leaving his state in,” Dreher said.
It would appear there’s only one thing holding Jindal back from a successful national campaign: the abject of failure of his gubernatorial tenure.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."