Louisiana Voice

Bobby Jindal just won’t go away.

The best explanation we can come up with is the psychiatric definition of denial: “A primitive-ego defense–mechanism by which a person unconsciously negates the existence of… stress-producing reality in his environment by disavowing thoughts, feelings, wishes, needs, or external reality factors that are consciously intolerable.”

The stress-producing reality in this case is:

• He is no longer governor;
• He was a disastrous laughingstock of a presidential candidate;
• In the last two presidential nomination sweepstakes, he has endorsed candidates (Rick Perry and Marco Rubio) who failed to capture voters’ interest;
• He has been reduced to just another talking head spouting misrepresentations about his miserable eight years of botched fiscal policies.

And so it was that last Thursday (March 24) Bobby Jindal was the featured speaker at something called the Mary Elizabeth Babcock Lectureship in the American Conservative Tradition at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

It was enough that Bobby the Boy Blunder spoke at the event that in the past has showcased such conservative notables as William F. Buckley, Jr., James Kilpatrick, George Will, Zbigniew Brzezinski, David Gergen, Jack Kemp, Robert Bork, Bob Dole, and J.C. Watts.

But in terms of pure, undiluted B.S., the advance press release from Denison on Jindal’s “Challenges and Opportunities in America’s Political Landscape: the 2016 Election and Beyond” was way over the top.

Some examples of the drivel contained in that press release:

• Bobby Jindal has a well-earned reputation as one of America’s most successful public sector executives and one of the boldest innovators in the health care and education sectors.
• Jindal used his two terms as Governor of Louisiana to rebuild and diversify the state’s economy and financial footing in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• Jindal’s agenda included top-to-bottom reformation and privatization of the state-run charity hospital and the state’s healthcare payer systems. Fiscally, Jindal reduced the state budget by 26 percent, reduced the state employee headcount by 30,000, and implemented the largest income tax reduction in state history. With a bipartisan consensus, Jindal implemented statewide school choice programs and moved the state from the bottom five in ethics laws to the top five.
• Jindal’s dramatic rework of Louisiana’s policy structure paid measurable dividends in the form of eight credit upgrades, $60 million in private capital investment and a ranking in the top ten in the nation for job creation and the highest ever per-capita income ranking in state history.
• Despite being the nation’s youngest governor when he was elected in 2007, Jindal had been well-prepared to become the state’s CEO, with stints as the head of the state Department of Health and Hospitals, as president of the University of Louisiana System, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare—all before his 30^th birthday.
• In the private sector, Jindal advised senior management of Fortune 500 firms as an associate at McKinsey & Co. Jindal analyzed potential acquisition targets, assisted with product launches, and evaluated manufacturing processes versus best practices. Jindal managed teams of clients and consultants and aided health care payer, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and information technology clients.

Of course, Denison’s fairy tale press release, obviously written either by Jindal, Rolfe McCollister or some other delusional member of his team, neglected to say that:

• He served less than a year with McKinsey & Co.—not exactly supportive of all the accomplishments claimed in the news release;
• That “well-earned reputation as one of America’s most successful public sector executives” is pure fiction, concocted by someone likely smoking some really good stuff.
• “…rebuild and diversify the state’s economy and financial footing” after Katrina and Rita? Jindal, for once in your miserable, deceitful career, tell the truth: You squandered a $1 billion surplus you inherited when taking office, thanks to federal funds for Katrina and Rita recovery, and left office with a $2 billion black hole of a deficit.
• As far as his “top-to-bottom reformation and privatization” of the charity hospital system and his school choice programs, we’ll just let the record speak for itself. Ethics? That word isn’t even in his vocabulary.
• “Well-prepared” to become the state’s CEO? The only thing he was well-prepared for was racking up frequent flyer miles in pursuit of higher office and running up monumental costs in the use of State Police security—a tab picked up by the taxpayers of Louisiana.

No, Jindal just won’t go away and he is doing everything he can to perpetuate the myth that he was an innovator who pulled the state from the brink of disaster.

That’s denial of the obvious.

For the real story of how his administration was rotten from top to bottom, you can pre-order a signed copy of my latest book, Bobby Jindal: His Destiny and Obsession.

After a couple of delays in the editing process, the book is now on track to be released around mid-April.

You may pre-order by clicking on the illustration of the book cover located on the upper right side of this post. You will be placing your order through Cavalier House Books of Denham Springs, which is only about three blocks from my home. When the books are received by Cavalier, the owner will summon me to the bookstore to sign each book to each purchaser before they are mailed out.

I can promise a much more accurate picture of our former governor, presidential wannabe than was provided in the Denison press release. The book, unlike that claptrap, is rooted in reality.