Timing, as they say in comedy, is everything.
And to be honest, we have no idea if Bobby Jindal, Governor of the State Denial, was trying to be funny this past week or if he is simply clueless.
We suspect the latter.
Jindal’s latest comedy tour began shortly after a comment about southern race relations by U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu who is locked in a heated contest against U.S. Congressman Bill Cassidy in what has become one of the ugliest, most negative and vindictive campaigns on the part of both candidates in the last half-century.
The campaign’s mudslinging and misleading claims have sunk to such depths in fact, that voters appear to have turned on both Landrieu and Cassidy with equal disgust.
Landrieu, when asked why President Obama was so unpopular in Louisiana, responded, “I’ll be very, very honest with you. The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans.”
That one sentence was likely the most accurate claim made in this entire election cycle—by any candidate in any race.
Yet, Jindal chose that remark as his cue to lambast Landrieu, calling her statement “remarkably divisive,” and adding, “She appears to be living in a different century. Implied in her comments is the clear suggestion that President Obama and his policies are unpopular in Louisiana because of his ethnicity. That is a major insult by Senator Landrieu to the people of Louisiana and I flatly reject it.”
Well, Governor, perhaps if you shut your eyes tightly and click your heels together, the old prejudices and bigotry will disappear. But, unfortunately, just because you close your eyes to something, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. And those of us who get out into the real world as opposed to tightly controlled support groups understand this.
A good example of the mindset that still lingers fifty years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was handed to me on Monday, Oct. 13 when I went to check my post office box at the Denham Springs post office. A woman, probably in her late fifties or early sixties entered right behind me. Unlike me, she wanted to do business at the counter only to find it closed. I reminded her it was Columbus Day and her response was: “Well, that must be for Mr. Obama. They wouldn’t close it for anyone else.”
I never bothered reminding her that the post office has been closed on Columbus Day since long before Obama was ever born in Hawaii or Kenya or wherever it is they claim—from personal knowledge, obviously—that he was born.
So, what century is it in which you reside, Governor?
Not satisfied with making an absolute fool of himself in Louisiana by insisting from behind his rose-colored glasses that the South is devoid of racial tensions and that everything is just peachy, Jindal immediately made himself a national laughingstock by repeating his comedy act on twitter and on Faux News. “The only colors that matter are red, white and blue,” he deadpanned on Your World with Neil Cavuto, even expanding on Landrieu’s own words, misquoting her as “calling all of us in the south racists. We don’t think in terms of black and white, in terms of racial colors.”
She never accused “all of us” of being racist; she said the South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans. There’s a huge difference, Governor, and you, of all people, should know that.
Nevertheless, if there is a living, breathing person, white, black, brown, pink or green who can truthfully say he or she harbors no prejudices, I want to meet you. There is not a person alive who does not have his or her prejudices or biases. I have mine, you have yours. We have to admit that if we are totally and completely honest with ourselves. Virtually every one of us has told or listened to jokes about blacks, women, gays, Cajuns, Polacks, Asians, fat people, ugly people, short people, Catholics, Jews and Baptists. Did I leave out anyone? Oh, yes, the neo conservatives’ latest favorites to fear and loathe: Mexicans and Islamics.
Oh, man. So many people to hate and so little time. C’mon, Guv, you can’t arbitrarily call an end to discrimination yet. We’re just getting started. We haven’t even started on South America or Australia or Canada.
And as we said at the beginning of this diatribe, timing is everything. Among the comic strips that I read daily online is one called Candorville. Today’s (Sunday) strip was particularly well-timed given Jindal’s proclamation of racial bliss and harmony:
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE):
Louisiana Voice 
No prejudice? Then why on earth did he change his name from Piyush to Bobby? Was it to “fit in” with a particular dynamic or group? I’m willing to bet that if his last name had been Patel instead of Jindal and if mom and dad had run a motel, he would have encountered some prejudged attitudes.
(I wish I’d thought to say that in my post but thank YOU for saying it!)
Heh…no problem Tom. I’ve read a couple of articles where he’s been labeled a “disappointment” by the Indian-American community in this country and I believe the name change was his way of trying to, shall we say, pass for white.
Kind of like calling yourself “Barry” rather than Barak…..
Exactly. Because of prejudice.
@mgbfu: Heh. Great comeback!
The plantation mentality continues to exist in Louisiana as the majority who vote believe republican politicians and the man in the big house(governor’s mansion) will take care of them like the plantation owner of slaves took care of their family and slaves in the 1800s at their expense. It is disgusting what people will whisper to friends about President Obama when they think others can not hear them or what they whisper to you when they believe you are on their so called side. I have voted and everyone in LA needs to vote Tuesday. Help us end the whispers and let us show the nation we are not really in the need of being taken care of by our politicians.
I applaud her for outing this inconvenient truth, and it’s about par that Jindal is running his mouth. I am absolutely amazed at the many people who deny racism in Louisiana. They obviously are tone deaf or don’t know what it means.
Jindal never lets a day go by without finding some reason to grandstand or pander. To intelligent listeners, based on my surfing many of the comments on articles about his foolishness around the country, it looks like his actions are counterproductive, in that his idiocy gets wider and wider exposure. In a significant measure, I believe, he is just preaching to the whacko choir. Positive comments about Jindal are almost exclusively found on right-leaning sites like Brietbart.com. And of course there are some pro-Jindal comments on NOLA.com, but they don’t do him any favors, to say the least.
Like I always say: Jindal may be “considering” a run for the White House, but it is clear the voters are not “considering” voting for him.
Fanning the flames of racism, fear of Ebola, fear of the federal government, fear of Obama, etc. is Jindal’s main occupation these days, but don’t worry, he is wasting his time and accomplishing nothing other than increasing his name recognition as a first class buffoon.
On top of everything said it definitely shows how unconnected he is to the people of Louisiana. And proves he has no common sense and has never connected to his State nor this country of the USA. Wonder what he really connects to?
Narcissistic people like Jindal have no need to be connected to anything or anyone.
Anybody with the capacity for clear thought can see the reactions of Governor Jindal and his ideological fellows to Senator Landrieu’s candid and entirely accurate remarks reflect a general failure to accept reality and a hope others are willing to do so.
I consider Senator Landrieu’s remarks the best she has made so far during this campaign. They make her a real person rather than a political figure. Isn’t that what we all want in our elected officials?
For a person that has done so many great things for this State (in his eyes) it baffles me as to why he has so shy in this State.
The media in states many miles from Baton Rouge can have a sit down with Jindal in no time at all.
I can guarantee you there is no way he would make those same statements in a public setting in New Orleans, Baton Rouge are many other city in our State.
He has an alligator mouth and a humming bird a$$.
Wait a minute, did I get this right? You determined that her statement: “Well, that must be for Mr. Obama. They wouldn’t close it for anyone else”
made this woman a racist? And this is your example of widespread racism and sexism in the south? You’re kidding, right? How about maybe she is cynical and disagrees with his policies and ideology? Is that possible?
Louisiana, after electing a female governor, a “person of color” as governor, many African-Americans to various state and U.S. legislative positions, and electing Ms. Landrieu to 8 years as a state legislator, 2 terms as State Treasurer, and 18 years as a U.S. Senator (1st woman from Louisiana), she needed to remind us (southerners) that we haven’t been too kind to African-Americans and women? I not sure why she felt that she needed to bring that up.
Yes, you got that right Congratulations to you.
It is the implications of her comment. Actually I’m worried about anyone in their fifties or sixties that didn’t realize Columbus Day was a Federal holiday. I hope she wasn’t planning to go to the bank after the p.o. because she’d really think the Prez was really something special, getting the banks to close and all.
I often wonder how such comments would stand up to a polygraph exam, or do the commenters really believe themselves.
What part has you so concerned?
When people deny racism, in all the many ways they deny it … like the above commenter’s pearl-clutching gasp over your implication that the woman’s comment was racist … do they really believe what they say (I think not) or are they just tossing out playground-level tripe meaning “You can’t prove it!” What would a polygraph exam say?
Jindal has a vested interest in the south being “post-racial” because it will improve the chances of all these “southern strategy” Republicans voting for a brown skinned president.
Too funny, non-racist Gov. Maharajah-Boy: in his scary, Halloween broadside from Campaign Central, aka the governor’s press office,(copied below), Jindal (and his propaganda machine people) proves himself a little racist by saying the only colors that matter in Louisiana are the flag and LSU purple and gold. (Does he attend LSU games? He didn’t attend LSU as a student, after all.) He sort of left out Southern U’s blue and gold, Grambling’s black and gold, LA Tech’s blue and red, Southeastern’s green and gold, Tulane’s olive and blue, ULL’s vermilion and white, ULM’s maroon and gold, Northwestern’s purple and white, Centenary’s maroon and white, UNO’s reflex blue and silver, Nicholls State’s grey and red, Dillard’s royal blue and white, Xavier’s gold and white, Loyola’s maroon and gold and McNeese’s royal blue and sunflower gold. My apologies to any school I’ve missed, it was unintentional and not racist. Lots of colors to love in Louisiana!
“Your World with Neil Cavuto”
Fox News
October 31, 2014
Excerpt:
Governor Jindal: Thank you for having me. I thought Mary’s comments, our senator’s comments, were ridiculous and offensive. She is basically calling the people of Louisiana –calling all of us in the south racists. She owes us an apology. Here in Louisiana and across the south, we don’t think in terms of black and white, in terms of racial colors. The only colors that matter down here are red, white and blue. On Saturday night, [it’s] purple and gold as we cheer the LSU Tigers on to victory. It’s not about race. There are many folks who disagree with this president’s policies, not just in Louisiana, but across all 50 states. It is just simply wrong. It is ridiculous to call people racist who happen to disagree with this president’s policies.
All the politicians who, like Governor Jindal, believe being nasty and petty, and distorting the facts, are the best ways to conduct political campaigns would do us all a big favor if they took a lesson from Senator Mark Pryor’s (D-ARK) playbook. He finds himself in similar circumstances to Senator Landrieu and is the subject of the same lines of attack. I had an opportunity to view his ads last week when I was up that way. In those ads, Pryor quietly states his position: Yes, he supports President Obama when he agrees with his policies and believes they are what is best for the country. He is willing and able to work with anybody in any party to best serve the citizens of Arkansas. Very impressive professional ads in which he simply looks into the camera and states his position. Regardless of the outcome, he can claim the high ground.
Mary’s gaff was the greatest gift she could ever give her opponents & shows her true devisive nature. If she loses she can attribute the defeat to her big mouth!!
Yeah, telling the truth can sometimes be a real gaff, can’t it? Better to lie and hope no one calls you on it, right?
That is the exact opposite of my take on her comments. With all due respect, If you believe her statements reflect divisiveness or anything other than an honest personal assessment and opinion, you and I live in alternative universes.
On the other hand, the things I have heard some others, including you, say about her comments do, indeed, further divisiveness via distortion of the simple statements she made. People should make their own judgments and not rely on others to interpret things that require no interpretation.
Tom is right. The truth sometimes hurts, but maybe we can learn something from it if we don’t simply dismiss it.
http://theadvocate.com/news/elections/10715178-123/respond-to-mary-landrieus-comments
I guess former governor Edwards also lives in an alternate universe to mine since he is not generally prone to worrying about political correctness.
Let’s hope Mary’s remarks encourage the Black voters (who turned out in record numbers to support Obama) to turn out in this mid-term election where they customarily do not get out to vote.
First and for the record, Jindal’s favorite color is green, as in money. Second, he has demonstrated on a regular basis his bias against lower socioeconomic groups – the poor, the elderly, rank and file state employees and the mentally challenged and disabled citizens of our state. Race is most certainly an element of poverty in Louisiana. Third, he would sell his soul (if this deal hasn’t already gone down) to the devil in exchange for the office of the Presidency. If his lips are moving, it’s probably a lie or distortion intended to pander for $$$ or to grab a headline.
And Mary is right: It’s tough being President while being black. President Obama has served with dignity, compassion and class which are all foreign concepts to Jitler who would be more suited to a role as dictator. Jindal is an embarrassment.
Neither Obama nor Jindal have any “class”, in my opinion. Obama plays golf while Rome is burning and Jindal tours the country at our expense. Both men are equally clueless and classless.