Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

The Prez and his Non-State of the Union Address:
Barack Obama gave a pretty well written speech, that while a little soft on specifics, got the job done where it counted...namely trying to make the public a smidge more confident after the last few weeks of gloomy portents of doom. I guess the Big O Administration took Bill Clinton's recent mild criticism to heart and that is a good thing. Sure stuff is pretty sucky now and it is refreshing to see a politician talking to the American people like grown-ups but sometimes you need to add a spoonful of sugar to folk's medicine to help it go down, y'know?

One area of these joint Congress Stat of the Union thingees that bugs me to no end is the constant applause from the assembled peanut gallery. These things would take about 10 minutes from start to finish if everyone saved their applause for when the President is finished speaking. Instead we get these goofy little applause duels between the Dems and Repubs that makes them all look like immature brats. And Nancy Pelosi was looking like the head cheerleader desperately trying to gain the favor of the new star quarterback with the way she was hopping up and down with every syllable that came out of Obama's mouth and clapping like a madwoman. At least it was a step up from watching former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert struggling to get in and out of his chair for the trillion standing ovations the Republicans used to give George W. Bush. I always expected him to have a heart attack right there on live TV.


The Future Leader of  The Loyal Opposition or Not:
Bobby Jindal (Governor of Louisiana) has presumably been tapped for the last year or so as the NEXT BIG THING in the Republican Party and last night's rebuttal was basically his coming out party. Sadly it was met with varying degrees of disappointment from his own party. Sure it was a bit of a letdown seeing little Bobby in his big boy suit standing there like a deer caught in headlights when the cameras first switched to him and he was a little bit less than dynamic in his delivery to be brutally honest. That being said I don't think his speech was really that bad. While I disagreed with the majority of what he said and felt he had a bit of a rough start; by the end he had gotten his act together and did an alright job.
The real problems with Jindal's speech can be boiled down to three things:
 
1. Jindal was hyped up by so many of the GOP faithful as their savior to rescue them from President Obama in 2012 that there was no way he would meet those expectations.
2. Jindal is ridiculously nonthreatening. He is a small framed man who doesn't put forth enough of a macho image and ever since Ronald Reagan came to prominence Republicans have loved their manly men (or at least what they have idealized as manly), namely a guy who can look comfortable wearing a cowboy hat as he rides a horse and shoots a gun.
3. The contrast in setting between Obama's speech and Jindal's was a recipe for epic fail. One guy is in a room filled with people clapping at every cough with a sycophantic cougar sitting behind him and the other guy is standing all alone in the foyer of a mansion with a staircase as a backdrop.
And now the Republicans all have sand in their collective vagina's where Jindal is concerned with every wingnut with a keyboard or microphone declaring his future political life dead before it even started which is a bit premature if you ask me. Jindal can be resuscitated with a few tweaks to the overall game plan that was mapped out for him:

1. Jindal should be leaning more toward a VP slot instead of the Presidential position in 2012. The guy is smart (he is a Rhodes Scholar), seems to be doing a decent job in Louisiana, and in previous speaking engagements has shown himself to have a bit more charisma than he did last night. Despite taking some serious shrapnel Sarah Palin is doing better politically now than she was before her doomed VP bid. So a shot as VP, win or lose, should only help Jindal's political bonafides.
2. He needs to butch it up a bit. Hire a trainer, take some Creatine, call A-Rod's cousin...just start working on his fitness. Maybe even grow a beard or goatee and get a new hairdo. The Catholic choirboy haircut does not help give him any heft at all.
3. Only speak in front of crowds who like you, never in drafty hallways all by your lonesome. If Jindal had given that exact same speech in a town hall type setting, filled with rank and file Republicans eager to clap and scream their approval, he'd have come out looking like the rising star everyone was predicting him to be instead of the fallen star everyone is describing him as.