When I wrote my column on Bobby Jindal’s serial efforts to make himself a viable national pol (and presumably a presidential candidate) for TPMCafe, I had not seen a new PPP survey of the Pelican State which illustrates the two-term governor’s problems back home even though he’s doing quite a bit better than he was the last time PPP polled Louisiana in August 2013.
Jindal’s job approval ratio now comes in at a terrible 35/53. In no small part that’s because he’s less than wildly popular with Republicans, who give him a mediocre 54/31 rating (his GOP rival David Vitter, who is already running to succeed him, comes in at 76/11 among Republicans). Worse yet, asked if Jindal should run for president, Louisianans say “no” by an insulting 63/25 margin (even Republicans oppose his candidacy by 50/36), and that’s not because they want him to stay home and do his job since he’ll be leaving office at the end of 2015.
Listed among possible 2016 candidates, Bobby can win only 13% among Louisiana Republicans, seven points behind Mike Huckabee and just one point ahead of Ted Cruz.
I suppose you could argue that being unpopular in Pennsylvania didn’t keep Rick Santorum from winning the 2012 Iowa Caucuses. But Santorum hadn’t been in office in Pennsylvania since 2006, and should Jindal run, it seems the ill-will of his constituents will be a relatively fresh memory. Yeah, it’s clear he needs to wait for that Cabinet appointment, unless his latest bout of culture war zealotry makes him even more toxic than he was before.
