Shikha Dalmia on Bobby Jindal's Search for Meaning and a Message

Gage Skidmore / Foter / CC BY-SA

Seven years ago, conservatives were all atwitter over Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. He was supposed to be the conservative answer to Barack Obama: A first-generation Indian-American who rejected offers from Harvard med and Yale law to study political science on a Rhodes scholarship.

But now in his second gubernatorial term, this boy wonder is trailing second to last among the dozen Republican presidential candidates. And his approval rating in Louisiana is now 27 percent in contrast to 67 percent of the vote he got for his second term.

Some loss of popularity was inevitable. But it takes hard work to squander so much goodwill. How did Jindal accomplish this, asks Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia?

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