Because it’s never too early to not run: “Bobby Jindal — the Indian-American Louisiana governor who is widely viewed as one of the front-runners for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination — flatly said Tuesday he’s not interested in seeking the White House,” CNN tells us. ” ‘No,’ Jindal said definitively when asked if he was interested in being president.”
“I’d say this confirms that Jindal isn’t an idiot,” writes Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:
Sure, it’s possible that Barack Obama is going to crash and burn and turn 2012 into a Republican year. But what are the odds? Far more likely is that Obama is a shoo-in for a second term, and whoever runs against him will suffer the same fate as George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Bob Dole, and Bob Kerry. The GOP will find someone to embark on this suicide run, but it will have to be someone both dumber and with a lot more jejune self-regard than Jindal. Palin 2012!
[Note: As many Opinionator readers have pointed out, Drum seems to have meant John Kerry, not Bob Kerrey.]
While Steve Benen at Drum’s old Washington Monthly perch isn’t so sure:
I’m sure that’s what Jindal said, and it’s likely he meant it. But I don’t really believe him.
Political leaders do this with some regularity. I distinctly remember Barack Obama, among others, saying in 2004 that he would not launch presidential campaigns in 2008. He did. Bill Clinton assured voters in 1990 that he wouldn’t run for president in 1992. He did. It’s not dishonesty; it’s the result of new and unexpected circumstances. Not only do voters tend to understand, I can’t think of a single recent political figure who’s been punished for this kind of reversal.
Opportunities arise. It happens. Making iron-clad pronouncements about one’s professional future are not only inherently difficult, they’re necessarily subject to change.
Indeed, says Ben Smith at the Politico:
A later version of the AP story quotes Jindal trying to tack back to his previous position, which had seemed to leave the door open.
“I think anybody who is even thinking of running would be well served to roll up their sleeves and support our new president,” Jindal said. “I told our people, ‘It doesn’t matter whether you’re Republican, Democrat or independent, it doesn’t matter whether you voted for him or not, President-elect Barack Obama is our president.'”
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