Davenport campaign stop very well attended
Jindal is one of two sitting governors running, and of current and former governors running, the only one with congressional / and federal administrative experience.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal made a campaign appearance in Davenport Sunday evening. SUNDAY EVENING. That would seem to be an unconventional time for a candidate to hold an event. However, by all appearances it worked out well for Jindal as 200 people showed up and a significant local media presence. On both of those counts he did better than Marco Rubio.
Jindal’s event included a spaghetti supper catered by Biaggi’s. But people didn’t know who the caterer was to be. They may have presumed Hy-Vee, which may have kept people away. OK, that was gratuitous. I am not a fan of their spaghetti. But what was not gratuitous was the amount of time Jindal spent on questions and answers from the audience, something Rubio did not do. Jindal was also clear in appeal to conservatives apart from Republicans.
The following lines were from Jindal responding to questions from the audience. They are as correct as I could jot down while listening:
Regarding immigration (see related link below)
He will “build a wall.” and held forth on the need for border security first.
Regarding dissatisfaction with the Republican Party:
” We don’t need a Republican Party that is a cheaper version of the Democrat Party. If so we need to fold up our tent “
“The last election was not about giving Mitch McConnell a larger office”
Manifesting his willingness to stand up to the party establishment:
“I campaigned against Republicans in Louisiana that opposed school choice”
~~ “Bold changes are needed . . . not incremental . . . if you want someone to manage the slow decline of the country go somewhere else ~~”
Expressing the dire need for the country to turn itself around:
“No one is going to rescue us ~~ we are what remains of the light in a dark world ~~”
“The biggest threat is from inside, no one can take away our heritage of freedom ~~ which we must rely on ~~”
Jindal is the only Republican candidate with both chief executive experience as a sitting state governor and Congressional experience. Jindal was elected twice to Congress where his American Conservative Union average ranking over three years (he left to run for governor) was 92. Regarding federal experience, he also served in a high level appointment as an Assistant Secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration. Previous to that , in 1999 Jindal was appointed to become the youngest-ever president of the University of Louisiana System, the nation’s 16th largest system of higher education.
Jindal opposes Obamacare and served notice on Republican leadership that the GOP Shouldn’t Go ‘Obamacare Lite’ on Health Reform Newsmax reported on Jindal’s comments last February:
“several alternative proposals being discussed by Republicans don’t actually repeal the law’s tax increases,” he writes. “Instead, they repeal the law’s tax increases, only to replace them with new revenue hikes. So, rather than raise taxes by more than $1 trillion, as Obamacare did, these plans raise taxes by perhaps, say, ‘only’ $500 billion.”
That puts Republicans in the position of being “cheap” Democrats, Jindal argues.
“We’ll raise taxes — but just … less than Obamacare. We’ll spend hundreds of billions on new entitlement programs — but just … less than Obamacare,” he says.
Jindal said there are conservative plans that don’t end up being “Obamacare lite.” One of them was proposed by Jindal’s own conservative policy group America Next.
Jindal can be considered a policy expert on health care (and education reforms). Previous to his HHS position he was an aid to a Louisiana congressman for whom he focused on Medicare reforms. He received an M.Litt. degree in political science with an emphasis in health policy from the University of Oxford in 1994.
Jindal will return to Davenport on July 20 at 6:00 PM at Thunder Bay Grille for a town hall meeting. More information on that event is available at davenportia.eventbrite.com His campaign website is www.believeagain.gop
More information:
Regarding DHS (immigration funding) Jindal tells GOP Congress to ‘grow a spine’ on DHS funding
Regarding hitting the Republican establishment candidates: Bobby Jindal hits Jeb Bush, hard, as he announces White House run
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