Any Republicans pondering a frontal assault on Donald Trump should take a long look at how that’s worked out for Louisiana’s least favorite son, Bobby Jindal.
To be sure, Bobby’s had at least three separate personas since he began lusting after the presidential nomination. At first he was the Brainiac offering succor to “the Stupid Party.” Then he decided the Christian Right would be his base, and he did everything short of handling snakes and waving bloody fetus posters to win over that constituency, without a lot of success. And most recently he’s been the Anti-Trump, offering Trump-like rhetoric while demonizing The Donald himself.
This has all brought him to a juncture where he’s nearly out of cash, and for the third time isn’t going to make the cut for a GOP debate (the CNBC-sponsored event on October 28).
So what’s Bobby doing about it? Threatening to boycott the “undercard” debate! On the heels of Trump and Carson and others pushing CNBC to modify their rules to limit the length of the debate and allow opening and closing statements, Team Bobby seems to think it can push the network to look sideways at his one good Iowa poll and put him on the big stage even though he’s a Nowhere Man in national polling.
I don’t think it’s going to work because CNBC would probably be fine with a Graham-Santorum-Pataki preliminary event. Maybe it’s all a ruse, and Jindal can’t afford the air fare to Colorado. But a self-exorcism from the next big campaign event is definitely a new one.
