Going out on a limb: Is it going to be Bobby Jindal?

McCain is seeking a way to wrest the headlines back from Obama and there is some media speculation that he could announce his choice of vice-president this week. He is due to visit New Orleans on Thursday, an unusual location given that Louisiana is not a battlefield state, and that could point to Bobby Jindal, the governor of the state, whose relative youth - he is 37 - and Asian Indian background could be a counter to Obama. McCain's Louisiana visit coincides with the centrepiece of Obama's overseas visit, a speech in Berlin. The columnist Robert Novak, who has good contacts among Republicans, said a decision on vice-president would be made this week. The Guardian

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It looks like McCain is going to try to finesse Obama's "World Tour", by timing his Veep nominee to coincide with it.

I would like to go out on a limb and make a prediction. It´s either going to be Sarah Pallin or Bobby Jindal.

Sarah Pallin would be interesting, she is a wildly popular governor and is so beautiful that it is not even sexist to say so: it only reveals a certain latent heterosexuality on the speaker's part.

Having said that, I don't think it will finally be Sarah Pallin, because the Hillary women who are not going to vote for Obama, are not going to vote for Obama, because they are not going to vote for Obama, and Pallin wouldn't draw one single female vote more out of that group.

I think it is going to be Bobby Jindal.

If McCain chooses Jindal it would be a master stroke.

As a person of color Jindal can run against Obama in ways that McCain can't and his lack of experience is no problem as Obama has set the bar very low on that point.

In fact it could be argued that Jindal has much more actual experience in administrating than either Obama or McCain. He also has strong economic creds among conservatives. Precisely what McCain lacks. He is "modern", witty, socially conservative, a child of immigrants... Brilliant student, Rhodes Scholar... the works.

As the governor of Louisiana he is also a person of color who Southern whites feel comfortable with; also a Catholic, he is a perfect fit for the blue collar Reagan Democrats... And to top it off, if the Republicans are looking for a way for white people to vote against Obama without feeling racist, Jindal is the key.

I think his being a southern governor, an economic whiz (former McKinsey consultant, etc) AND a person of color is practically irresistible... The story of his parents as immigrants plays well to the American Dreaminess ... and to complete the picture, he has a beautiful wife, straight out of a Bollywood film.

Some Democrats, of all people, consider Bobby Jindal too young.

Jindal is a baby, but in the same sense as Obama (if compared to McCain). Jindal is apparently a fiscal conservative cult figure, with a proven record of cost effectiveness. Compared to Obama he has massive experience in actually administrating things. Jindal's main thing is that he is young, smart and dark of hue (sound familiar?) It allows folks who are not convinced by Obama to vote McCain without feeling guilty for having voted against a person of color.

They can vote against "The Audacity of Audacity" without feeling racist.

Many still think McCain will pick Mitt Romney because of his economic credentials, but I don't think it will be Romney because as a Mormon, the social conservatives don't trust him, and independents find his manner distasteful. A McCain-Romney ticket would just look like another bunch of rich white men.

Besides, Mitt Romney would be too boring and wouldn't make much of a media splash. Media splash is very important because it obvious that the media are trying to black out McCain.

Jindal's would splash like hell. He has got most of the Obama media pluses but a much clearer ideological profile. Whether or not you like that profile is another matter. But at least he has a firm point of view.

I have no clear view of Obama except that he really would loooooooooooooove to be president and will say and do anything to get there.

And there are a lot of very suspicious characters, like the NYT and the TV networks, who would also say and do anything to help him.

Why is this?

Because, frankly I think the system is now in panic mode.

As I see it, Barack Obama is the system's "political lightning rod", a man whose mission is to draw off all the progressive energy that is building up in US politics and in one single, brilliant flash, conduct it harmlessly into the ground.

Personally "my inner Lenin", rather than see all that energy wasted, would prefer it kept in the darkening clouds for a rainy day -- and there are some mighty rainy days on the way.

Don't I want "change"?

Of course I do, but it would have to be "change I can believe in"... not a chump's change. DS