Jindal? Really?

I'm not sure who managed to make it through Jindal's awkward, halting, weird *response* to Obama's address to congress. But we suffered through it.

As a candidate eight weeks from her Ph.D. in English (one of two specialty areas is in Classical through Modern Rhetoric), I estimate he failed on four of five major points.

1. Audience
He failed to connect to his audience. What does Louisiana have to do with the rest of the 49 states? For example, what does the Louisiana school system (whose numbers of failures and dropouts have risen by two percent since he took office a year ago) have to do with the school systems in say, Kalamazoo? Or Chicago? Or Fort Worth?

2. Logos
He actually used one of the strongest cases of government failure (the abominable response to Katrina) as a model for national recovery?

3. Kairos
He was the wrong guy at the wrong time: typically the best speakers are those with access to the actual material on which they discourse. Jindal is a governor. Not a sitting senator or representative (altho' he spent 3 years in the house under Bush). Therefore, he wasn't part of the debate process nor the vote on the stimulus package.

4. Delivery
Delivery is one of the five major canons of rhetoric. Yeah, I think that's about all I need to say about that one.

Don't get me wrong, Jindal seems like a nice man. It's sad he doesn't use his given name.

However, I do strongly believe we need a solid multi-party system in our country-- I don't know how that's going to be if this is the best the GOP has to offer.

PS: To those who have left comments in support, especially those who are conservatives who are leaving comments of support, thank you. And thanks for the email addresses you have left as an invitation for a civilized dialogue. I really appreciate it.

To the 8 individuals who keep trying to abuse *me* through the comments about a *post* that was written over two days ago, you won't get a voice on this blog. In other words, you can stop checking that post to see if I am posting your comment. I'm not going to. Really, it's kind of sad that you keep coming back on a minute to minute basis to check it. Save yourself the hassle.

I have set a boundary and to the mentally unstable people that are failing to respect that boundary (*especially the one who has left me 15 comments since I started moderating them last night), you continue to fail to bully me into putting your hate onto my blog space. That's not free speech. That's manipulation and anti-social, psychotic disorder. Thanks to a friend for posting this link to her blog: www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment. I've got a few folks who fall into this category for sure.