CMR fave for President in 2012 is Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. Jindal, who is Catholic, gave an interview to syndicated columnist Cal Thomas. The entire interview is worth reading, but I wanted to highlight this section in which Thomas asked Jindal about the role of faith in his politics.
Jindal gives an interesting answer about shortcuts, means and ends, that I think speaks to anyone, not just presidential hopefuls.
THOMAS: Faith?
JINDAL: I read Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life right after I lost my first election in 2003, and one of the main lessons I got out of that was keeping the eternal perspective. If we truly believe what we read in the Bible and hear in our churches there are a lot of things we worry about in life that aren’t that important from an eternal perspective. There are things more important than winning the next election [NOTE: Jindal’s next election is in 2011, and he says he’s running.] You realize you’re not indispensable. The world can continue whether you are in or out of office, whether your party is in the majority or not. At the end of the day, we are not in control of everything. If you don’t have that perspective, it can mean elected officials taking shortcuts to an end that justified the means.
If you don’t have that perspective you can say it’s OK to attack another person’s character and engage in mudslinging. In 2003 we were criticized for refusing to go negative. I was asked, โYou obviously regret that choice.โ Absolutely not. How do you go home and tell your children, โDon’t worry about what Daddy is doing, just listen to what I say.โ But if we really believe from this eternal perspective that there are things more important than winning the next election or having money … it really doesn’t matter whose name is on the statue [because] that has no lasting meaning. This perspective should change the way you conduct yourself, whether it’s politics, or business. And it should. None of us is perfect, but you have to strive toward that.
Second, viewing the sanctity of life, I believe the reason people are valuable is that they are created in the image of God and there’s a dignity there. And that leads me to believe people should have access to health care, not because of policy reasons, but because they’re valuable because we are created by God in His image.
This is the language and philosophy of a politician that represents me. There are no shortcuts of course and there is a huge gulf of time between now and 2012. Let’s keep our eyes and prayers on Bobby Jindal.
January 14, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Jindal 2012! I’m there. Unless Palin wants it. Then I’m for her.
Palin/Jindal 2012!
January 14, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Jindal/Bauer in 2012 – assuming that Mr. Bauer isn’t indicted for treason during the next few episodes…
January 14, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Amen to that Patrick! I like Jindal AND Palin (not sure in what configuration though).
January 14, 2009 at 11:37 pm
I really like Bobby Jindal. I’d love to see him be President. Solid Catholic — and Indian-American, like me. ๐
January 15, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I think Palin is an appealing person, but Jindal would be much the better president. Some of the more ridiculous ignorances credited to Palin were slanders, but her general fund of knowledge clearly was not that large. She really couldn’t name any other Supreme Court decisions other than Roe v. Wade she disagreed with, and she didn’t have the honesty to say “I can’t think of any right now, I’ll get back to you on that.” Fox had her on later to answer the question, and by then she had learned an answer to this question, clearly understood the issues and stated them well. I look upon her as naturally talented and very teachable but not experienced and knowledgeable.
Jindal has a much broader perspective. And his grasp of detail is also top notch. I heard him talking about what had been done to prepare for the most recent hurricane to hit Louisiana; no vague generalities at all, he had every detail.
Also, need I mention that he is Catholic, and a convert at that?
That means he is working from a much more sound philosophical/theological base than is Palin.
I’d go with Jindal/Palin.
Susan Peterson