This would just be a random news item about an annoying politician if it were not quite possibly an example of the dynamic so many of us have been talking about the last few days of GOP presidential candidates grabbing every media opportunity available to get the kind of attention that might bump up those polling numbers and earn a spot on the debate stage:
Today, Governor Jindal released the following statement after Senator Rand Paul commented this morning that ISIS exists because of hawkish foreign policy.
Governor Jindal said, “This is a perfect example of why Senator Paul is unsuited to be Commander-in-Chief. We have men and women in the military who are in the field trying to fight ISIS right now, and Senator Paul is taking the weakest, most liberal Democrat position.
It’s one thing for Senator Paul to take an outlandish position as a Senator at Washington cocktail parties, but being Commander-in-Chief is an entirely different job. We should all be clear that evil and Radical Islam are at fault for the rise of ISIS, and people like President Obama and Hillary Clinton exacerbate it.
American weakness, not American strength, emboldens our enemies. Senator Paul’s illogical argument clouds a situation that should provide pure moral clarity. Islam has a problem. ISIS is its current manifestation. And the next President’s job is to have the discipline and strength to wipe ISIS off the face of the earth. It has become impossible to imagine a President Paul defeating radical Islam and it’s time for the rest of us to say it.”
This was on Jindal’s official state website, mind you, which is ironic given all the complaints that he’s spending more time running for president than governing Louisiana. And that’s not all: he also went heavy on Twitter with this line of attack.
Perhaps Jindal decided to get energized after reading a Times-Pic piece from Julia O’Donoghue drawing attention to a FiveThirtyEight analysis by Harry Enten of polls showing Bobby running dead last (technically, tied for dead last with John Kasich) among born again/evangelical voters, his obsessive target for many months now.
We might want to get used to this for such time as Fox News is still planning to determine debate participation via national poll standings. Much as Bobby Jindal doesn’t seem to like spending time in Louisiana, it’s certainly cheaper for him to howl at the moon in Baton Rouge than anywhere else. We’ll soon see who else joins this particular pack.
