Those Addresses

I listened to part of Obama tonight, but I got all of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's Republican response. The President's address seems to be getting a wildly successful response. It seems like he hit all the right notes in just the right tone. You can watch it or you can read it and come to your own conclusion.

As I said, I heard these, listening on the radio rather than watching on TV, so I don't know if the experience was somewhat different, but Jindal sounded awful. His delivery was very stilted, and I wondered exactly what he was trying to accomplish. I think my favorite moment was when he told the entire country that we can't depend on government to help us because George Bush and FEMA ignored Katrina when it devastated New Orleans. It all goes back to Reagan's "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" (his "and watch me prove it" was just implied). When I got home and looked up reaction, I discovered that it wasn't just me. David Brooks called Jindal's response "a form of nihilism" and "a disaster for the Republican Party." The governor couldn't even get Fox News behind him. I guess he doesn't really need to start worrying, though, until talk of his chances for 2012 start fading away.