Gov. Bobby Jindal’s task tonight, to rebut President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress, was a thankless one. But it still constituted an opportunity for the Louisiana Republican to show that he could handle the national spotlight, present himself as a fresh face of the Republican Party, and stand up to the current president oratorically.
On each of these three hurdles, he came up short. Both Democrats and Republicans alike panned Jindal’s rebuttal in terms that were decidedly harsh: “amateurish,” “laughable” and, most commonly, “a missed opportunity.”
