BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – Governor Bobby Jindal is raising big questions about the White House response following the Gulf Spill.
His new book hit store shelves on Monday (Nov. 15). In it, the governor says President Obama’s image took precedent over the environmental impact of the spill.
Governor Bobby Jindal got up early Monday morning to rail on the President while promoting his new book “Leadership and Crisis.”
“He pulls me aside and he’s angry that we have sent a letter, a routine letter, a bureaucratic letter, to the Department of Agriculture saying you know there may be laid off workers that may need food stamps. I was shocked,” Jindal said to a reporter. The reporter responded, “Wait a minute! He flies in to talk about the BP spill initially on the steps of Air Force One and he talks about food stamps? And he is angry that this may make them look bad.”
Political Analyst Clay Young said the governor’s book speaks largely to mainstream Republican America, and has little to do with Louisiana.
“The governor is trying to remain relevant as a rising star in the Republican Party,” said Young. “This book doesn’t talk a ton about his policy here in Louisiana. It talks a great deal about national initiatives. So I think there is somewhat of a message to the rest of the nation to say, ‘hey I’m still here!'”
Young pointed out Jindal’s high popularity ratings here in Louisiana, and said he can politically afford to travel around the country. His upcoming fundraiser in California will presumably benefit a bid for re-election in Louisiana.
Young’s advice to the governor is to enjoy the next couple of months. “So he is very popular around the nation, but you have to keep the natives happy. I’ll say this right now through the beginning of the year the governor has time to talk about Louisiana and his own personal ambitions. But it will be showtime when the session starts and you have to show and prove,” Young said.
The next thing for Jindal to prove is how to overcome a $1.5 billion budget short-fall or his next book might be called “Crisis.”
