There’s just something about this man that doesn’t seem right, that you don’t care to examine exactly what it is, but you know it deep down in your gut somehow.

Actually, there are several things wrong about Bobby Jindal, and I can list them clearly and concisely.

He spews Hooveresque talking points that have been proven failures, he makes up stories about sheriffs and he talks like Mr. Rogers, but only when he’s talking to the whole country, not when he’s on Meet the Press.

I’d go tell Ms. Althouse this, but I can’t spare the IQ points.

Isn’t Jindal being compare to an uber-white character on teevee?  And that was the first thing to pop into people’s minds?

Seriously, Ann Althouse is just stupid.

This ties in with something mentioned in a previous thread, how the White Straight Christian Male Party can’t quite seem to wrap its collective head around the idea that not everyone is a secret racist.

I was unaware that Kenneth from “30 Rock” was an anti-Indian stereotype.

Actually, there are several things wrong about Bobby Jindal, and I can list them clearly and concisely.

Exactly! I haven’t heard a word about, “Oooh, I don’t know where this guy is coming from,” but I’ve heard a LOT of, “Did he just say that KATRINA was what we wanted to emulate?!?”

This ties in with something mentioned in a previous thread, how the White Straight Christian Male Party can’t quite seem to wrap its collective head around the idea that not everyone is a secret racist.

Good grief, you may be right. I had assumed it was just a desperate attempt at turnabout to justify their OWN racism towards Obama (and tokenism with Jindal), but that may be closer to the truth.

Usually, Ann, when there is racism happening, there’s some sort of connection to racial stereotypes or racist tropes.  Like, for instance, comparing him to Mr Burns doesn’t have any particular racist connotations but if we called him Apu, then you might have a point.  Or if people criticize him more than any other random brainless conservative, then you might have a case.  Merely criticizing people who are not white isn’t evidence for racism.

You’re all sexists for criticizing Ann Althouse’s stupidity!

See, Ann actually does hate him for being Indian.  Since she recognizes the racism in herself, she just assumes everyone else is racist and that somehow comparing Bobby “The Exocist” Jindal to Kenny, a white guy, or Mr. Burns, a rich yellow guy, must be racist somehow.

That’s her real question.  “There’s just something about this man that doesn’t seem right, that you don’t care to examine exactly what it is, but you know it deep down in your gut somehow.” 

Ann hates him b/c he’s brown, but she’s not quite catching the dog whistles here.  What are they?  I know, deep in my gut, that he creeps me out b/c he’s not white.  The fact that there are no dog whistles and that the man is being called out for saying stupid things in a stupid manner just isn’t clicking for her.  Surely there has to be more?

You know, like how Jessica was throwing herself at Clinton.  There’s something there, damnit!  And if I have another bottle of wine, I know I’ll find it!!!

I can tell you why I don’t like Jindal - it’s because he’s a lying liar who lies.  He told the “rail line from Vegas to Disney” lie, the one that’s been debunked multiple times.  He lied about President Obama’s plans, and right after the truth was told.

But don’t bother telling Althouse that - her talking-point-addled brain tells her that since Mr. Exorcist is a brown person, therefore they can finally claim racism just like DEM DHIMMICRATZ and nobody will be able to question them.

Seriously, can someone get Althouse a better pastime than this?  Say, staring at a wall waiting for the paint to peel?

There’s just something about this man that doesn’t seem right, that you don’t care to examine exactly what it is, but you know it deep down in your gut somehow. Seriously. How do you know this is not racism?

Oh. My. God.  I’m racist against Mitt Romney!

You know, I have seen a few people in comments around the web (not here) being racist towards Jindal, mostly jokes about Indian food or convenience stores.  Ann, those comments are racist but the others are not because .... ?  Any idea?  Althouse?  Althouse?

Man, is there anything for conservatives that isn’t projection. It is funny though when they try and confront “what they think is the secret motivation for everyone”. damnedyankee is completely right. They are so confident that they’ve got the magic knife that’ll bring it all down (ha ha, we’ll get non-whites and women to hide behind too and accuse people of the false name calling that are the -isms cause everyone really knows they’re all inferior to any white male) and are baffled that the American response is “...Really?”

Though frankly, Jindal’s Katrina comments were really what I think is creeping everyone out most of all. Yeah, the talking to childish tone and happy-go-lucky gait and smile were weird and abrupt, but with the Katrina comment, I think he accidentally let slip something that not even the most racist white conservative has been willing to state publicly. That is, to the conservatives, Katrina was a good thing. It successfully allowed them to wipe out an entire city of negro Democrat-voters and start to rebuild it in their own image leaving the survivors to rot and hopefully begin dying out. Bobby Jindal’s win and the odd conservative swing in the last election are seen as their righteous rewards and potentially the way back on top. The conservatives have always had a core of out and out fascists and I think as the pool gets smaller, we’re seeing more of that in the foreground. These people can’t handle the continual growth of independent women, brown people, queers, and those unmentionables that combine categories that just won’t go away and stop existing. I think Jindal let that slip out in his eagerness to be seen as “one of the gang”.

I think we’re all baffled and comparing him to Mr. Burns because it was just so “gah” stupid without that meaning. Without that intent, it’s just a man coming off an economy is bad speech with, hey there kiddos, we need more tax cuts to help bring a new Katrina. And that’s weird and freaky.

I’ve disliked any number of white male Republicans, (okay, it was all of them) now I find out it must be because I’m a self-hating white guy of some sort.

Shit. I guess I should be in therapy or something. Thanks Ann Althouse!

TPM had some little point about how, by comparing Jindal to Kenneth the Page - perhaps the whitest character on TV - we are truly seeing past skin color.  It made me wonder if the shoe were on the other foot, and Jindal were on our side, if this is a comparison the Republicans would be latching on to.  I suspect they’d latch on to some comparison with a more dog-whistle racist tinge.  I don’t know what it would be, but just calling him an awkward dork wouldn’t be enough.  Surely they’d come up with something that emphasized that he was a non-white awkward dork.

Oh. My. God.  I’m racist against Mitt Romney!

Y’know, if he was in a race all by himself I’d be infintessimally less uncomfortable about being white.  And we’d have a new analogy for integral calculus.  You may be onto something here, Professor Whig.

Though frankly, Jindal’s Katrina comments were really what I think is creeping everyone out most of all.

I think that’s what it was.  Up until that point, it was just a run-of-the-mill dull response speech, but then Jindal tried to claim that Katrina proved we need less federal government and, well, jaws dropped all over the nation.

Republicans still don’t realize that they lost huge swaths of Republican voters after Katrina.  That was the moment when a lot of low-tax, small-government Republicans realized that no matter what they said, there was no way in hell that a Republican government would be able to help in a time of crisis.  And, rightly, that scared the shit out of them in this time of terrorism.

Not to mention that the Republicans gambled that most people would be happy to let black people drown, but it turns out that even some of their own voters have this notion that African-Americans are, well, Americans and should be treated that way.

I have seen a few people in comments around the web (not here) being racist towards Jindal

I’ve actually seen quite a bit of it, and a little has even seeped in over here.

I feel especially divided on the Piyush issue.  Some liberals tend to emphasize that his name is Piyush, not Bobby, which I’m pretty sure is to remind people that he’s a “furrner”.  Part of that is to underline the hypocrisy of that (there are Republicans still insisting on using Obama’s middle name at all times), and part of that is to remind people that he’s a token.  But then there’s a little bit of it I know is meant to make fun of someone who is from a different background and has a weird name. 

Of course, Althouse doesn’t mention any of the real racist aspects of racist reactions towards Jindal.  She just assumes that ANY reaction against him MUST be based on racism, rather than based on Jindal being a mandacious bag of douche.

Not to mention that the Republicans gambled that most people would be happy to let black people drown, but it turns out that even some of their own voters have this notion that African-Americans are, well, Americans and should be treated that way.

You know my comment above was mostly dark suspicion, but seeing this, I think I was on to something. I think the core die-hards really can’t wrap their heads around the idea that other people saw the elimination of a large swath of AAs as somehow wrong and not instead as a triumphant proof that government is totally the problem and we need less.

To them, it was, blacks gone, more Republican votes, win-win, whereas everyone else saw it as the devastating loss of American lives and were quietly reminded that at any time and place that could just as well be themselves callously disregarded as meaningful by the government.

I don’t think they’ve been able to grasp the idea that not everyone secretly wants the blacks dead or ground underfoot and seem to be trying to figure out what Obama means under their limited worldview. I think they are settling on it was a means to punish them or make them angry because that’s how they approach most decisions these days.

@ Opop:  OK, I’ve been partial to calling him “Piyush,” mostly because I find it funny that he literally renamed himself, and it strikes me as key to his attempt to “pass.”  But I do see that it could come across simply as, “Haha, Funny Name Guy has a funny name,” so I’ll reconsider using it as a dig.  He’s ridiculous enough without cuing up the xenophobia.

I think the core die-hards really can’t wrap their heads around the idea that other people saw the elimination of a large swath of AAs as somehow wrong and not instead as a triumphant proof that government is totally the problem and we need less.

Remember Jonah Goldberg’s “joke” about the people at the Superdome being left to fend for themselves?  He still thinks the problem was the Mad Max/Thunderdome references and not that he was advocating that thousands of his fellow citizens be left to starve.

The thing that I find odd about Jindal’s having chosen “Bobby” as his preferred name is that he said that he chose it because of “The Brady Bunch”.

And most of the people I have known in my life who chose common American names as their preferred first name chose something that sounded a little less childish than “Bobby”.  I know someone who says “Call me Sam” when his legal name is Sokrates, for instance—if his preferred name choice was “Sammy” I would find that a bit goofy.

But I agree that there are people who are all ‘HA HA HE HAS A FUNNY NAME’ which is a bit xenophobic or racist or whatever.

And speaking of someone really being xenophobic or racist, Chris Matthews saying “Maybe they shouldn’t have outsourced” actually WAS, whereas “this guy made a crap speech” or “he’s like Kenneth the Page” WASN’T.

As someone who has a difficult first name and played around with the idea of changing it (never did), I can sympathize with Jindal changing his name.  I don’t even have a problem with “Bobby”—it sounds very Southern to me, and he seems to identify as a Southerner.

Which is probably why I call him Jindal and not Bobby or Piyush.  I am not fond of “you have a funny name” jokes, to say the least.

I’m also finding it a bit funny that Althouse was apparently gobsmacked enough by Jindal’s performance that she couldn’t bring herself to level a direct accusation of racism at critics.  She’s never struck me as shy in that regard, after all.  The best she could do is phrase it in the form of a rather weaselly question.  It seems like flailing, really.

But I do see that it could come across simply as, “Haha, Funny Name Guy has a funny name,” so I’ll reconsider using it as a dig.  He’s ridiculous enough without cuing up the xenophobia.

I’m not really sure we should avoid it at all costs—I got good mileage out of Piyush talking to family in Louisiana during the elections.  My stepfather, unbidden, actually brought up that he just couldn’t imagine voting for someone who had a name like Barack Obama.  My reply: “You already voted for someone named Piyush Jindal and you think he’s doing a great job as governor of your state.”  He pretty much ate his words.

But there are a lot of people who are all “Why aren’t they using his REAL name, Piyush?  Huh?  Huh?”  Respectful people call folks by the names they want to be known by.  Even if I think it implies all sorts of unsavory things about his character.

Oh, and @ Jupiter - there’s a long tradition of Louisiana politicians with over-casual or juvenile nicknames.  Most memorably in my lifetime, Mike Foster, who has the perfectly acceptable real first name of Murphy.  You’ll see a shocking number of “Bubbas” and “T-Boys” and “Jim Bobs” on a Louisiana ballot, for no apparent reason.  Still, you’d think Jindal’s parents would’ve been, “Oh, sweetie, you mean Robert, right?”

The best she could do is phrase it in the form of a rather weaselly question.  It seems like flailing, really.
damnedyankee on 02/25 at 04:23 PM

Flail FAIL!

This is so funny and predicatble.

If you couldn’t see this coming from a mile away, you weren’t looking.  Althouse’ screed is just the first of many that we’ll be seeing should Governor Exorcist decide to challenge President 70% Approval in 2012.

This is virtually identical to the strategy that was tried to denounce critics of the Disasta from Alaska as being secret misogynists.

I can just imagine it now around Summer 2012… You Obama supporters obviously hate Bobby Jindal because he’s brown!!!

Oh…. wait.

The Opoponax wrote: Oh, and @ Jupiter - there’s a long tradition of Louisiana politicians with over-casual or juvenile nicknames.  Most memorably in my lifetime, Mike Foster, who has the perfectly acceptable real first name of Murphy.  You’ll see a shocking number of “Bubbas” and “T-Boys” and “Jim Bobs” on a Louisiana ballot, for no apparent reason.  Still, you’d think Jindal’s parents would’ve been, “Oh, sweetie, you mean Robert, right?”

If his parents are like the parents of many of my 2nd-gen South Asian friends, they probably just ignore the whole “Bobby” thing, because if they’d wanted their son to be named “Bobby” they wouldn’t have named him “Piyush”.

Is it racist to say that Jindal looks like the delivery room doctor dropped him on his head when they didn’t make the payments on time?

He looks really funny to me, but not in an Indian sort of way ... in a looks funny because his eyes don’t seem right and sounds childish sort of way.

I think Dan GHEoBF nailed it. Righties say these things because they know they get liberals riled up and diverts attention from actual issues. What surprises me is that other Republicans were so shocked by Jindal’s performance that they didn’t immediately adopt the same posture. (But just wait.)