Right-wing media fracture over Jindal
February 26, 2009 9:05 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Raise your hand if you ever thought the topic of Gov. Bobby Jindal was going to cause a break within the Republican Noise Machine. Yeah, me neither. But in the wake of Jindal's widely panned--and widely mocked--Tuesday night address to the nation, the right-wing media are at odds over the Louisiana governor.
Even before Rush Limbaugh announced his unwavering support for Jindal Wednesday afternoon, lots of far right were furious with Jindal's performance. From Ace of Spades HQ:
Awful. He walked out like an earnest dork and has a weird inflection, trying to sound upbeat and sunny when it's clearly not his natural metier. It sounds false, and he looks false. I don't care how much of a star Jindal is, America doesn't elect somewhat-off dorks as president.
But then Limbaugh announced that kind of talk was off limits for conservatives:
Because if you think people on our side, I’m talking to you, those of you who think Jindal was horrible, in fact, I don’t want to hear from you ever again if you think that what Bobby Jindal said was bad or what he said was wrong or not said well, because, folks, style is not going to take our country back.
GOP bloggers didn't take too kindly to those marching orders. Hot Air thought it was obvious Jindal blew his big night, and wondered what was wrong with admitting that. Over at Riehl World Review, came this:
At only fifty-eight, hopefully [Limbaugh] still has a long way to go. But many of the battles conservatives have to fight and win need to be engaged at age levels that could prove to be beyond Rush's professional reach.
The headline for the Riehl World post: "Is The Limbaugh Era Nearing An End?"
We can dream, can't we?
P.S. South Carolina's GOP governor, Mark Sanford, thinks Limbaugh's an "idiot."
I'm going to get some popcorn and continue to watch the right-wingers eat their own. Take notes folks, this is what it looked like right before the dinosaurs went extinct.
I read Jindal's comments last night. Pretty amazing that he would take the Hurricane Katrina case and use that to draw conclusions about how well government handles natural disasters in general. Not only was this government response handled by just one political party, but even for that party, it was an unusually uncoordinated, disorganized effort.
To look at Katrina and draw conclusions about how well "government" handles disasters is equivalent to putting a chip down on "7," winning, and then claiming that betting on "7" is always a guaranteed winner.
Only reading what he says doesn't really give the full picture of how awful that speech was. Sure, a "State of the union" response is a thankless task, but this was something else. Not only was the language used overly simplified ("Americans can do anything!"), but the mannerisms and the inflections were downright bizarre.
style is not going to take our country back...Rush
That'll be difficult considering the righties are all style, no substance. Their last president was a false cowboy, while their saint was an actor portraying a presidnet.
Rush is against both option A and option B. Keep leading.