Bobby Jindal

A hilariously sad e-mail is circulating nowadays proposing that members of Congress be required to wear colorful, logo-splattered uniforms like NASCAR drivers so that voters can know their corporate sponsors. So no surprise that the Republicans went out of town to find their official responder to President Obama's Feb. 24 address to a joint session of Congress: Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal.

When Bobby Jindal lost his first Louisiana governor's race four years ago, some experts told him that white people here were not ready to elect a dark-skinned son of Indian immigrants. On Tuesday, as he dashed across the state in a victory caravan after his historic Saturday landslide win, Louisiana's Republican governor-elect had a message for his rural supporters: Thank you for proving the conventional political wisdom wrong.

Following President Obama's call Tuesday evening for a return to fiscal responsibility, Republicans responded -- by demanding the country return to a policy of fiscal responsibility. If that sounds like the two parties are on the same page at last, the GOP's actual message -- expressed most directly by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in the party's official response to Obama's speech -- was that the party was prepared to oppose the president's economic program at almost every turn.

The reviews were swift and scathing: Off-putting. Amateurish. Disastrous. And those were fellow Republicans reacting to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who delivered the nationally broadcast follow-up to President Obama's speech to Congress on Tuesday night. (Not surprisingly, Democrats echoed the criticism.) Even allowing for hyperbole, it was not, by most accounts, a winning performance by Jindal.

President Obama came to the defense of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal today, laughing off the crowd's resonant boos for the Republican official during a town hall meeting here. Obama laughed and offered some comfort to the Republican governor: Some days, he said, "I get that too." Although today wasn't quite that bad for Obama, he still got one very pointed question about the adequacy of federal aid to the hurricane-ravaged region and, outside the town hall meeting, some criticism about the length of his half-day visit to New Orleans, his first as president.

Hard to believe this much time has passed already since the 2008 presidential election. But here we are only 37 months away from the 2012 Iowa caucuses. And only 32 months until the Ames straw poll. And here goes Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal speaking at a fundraiser for the Iowa Family Policy Center (you remember them) at that familiar Sheraton Hotel in West Des Moines. The 37-year-old Jindal made light of the occasion, of course, joking to some 800 curious listeners that it was way too soon to be making political speeches.

Re "'We will rebuild, we will recover,'" Feb. 25 If Obama wasn't a star before he delivered his speech Tuesday night, he is now. This man is amazing. He has grace, charm, intelligence and a sense of humor -- and he's a darn good politician. I get the distinct feeling that he reads those briefing books each night. It is reassuring. As a friend of mine who describes himself as a staunch Republican wrote me: "At long last I've lived to see a grown-up president. He grows before our very eyes."

A start-up automobile company plans to assemble a new fuel-efficient car in Louisiana and employ an estimated 1,400 people once production starts, state and company officials announced. San Diego-based V-Vehicle Co. will take over a vacant plant in Monroe, Gov. Bobby Jindal said. Former Oracle Corp. executive Frank Varasano, who founded V-Vehicle in 2006, said the company has applied for $340 million in loans from the federal government. Company Vice President Horst Metz said production would begin in about 18 months.

The Republican candidate in Louisiana's gubernatorial election Saturday is running as the compassionate conservative George W. Bush once promised to be. But Bobby Jindal knows better than to invite the president to campaign for him, because a Bush visit would backfire and cost him votes. Instead, he's campaigning hard for black votes in a state long cursed by the politics of polarization. Last year, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu ran for reelection against Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell.