Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has been among the brightest Republican stars in a party searching for a strong competitor to Barack Obama in 2012. He may be shining a little less brightly today, Bloomberg reported.
Jindal is catching criticism from fellow Republicans for his performance last night delivering the party's response to Obama's address to a joint session of Congress.
"A lot of Republicans I am speaking with were expecting this would be like Obama's moment in 2004" when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention and gained immediate national fame, said David Johnson, a Republican strategist who advised Bob Dole in 1988. "He bombed out."
Democrat or Republican, any public official competing with the pomp and theater of the president's address to a joint session of Congress is at a disadvantage. Still, some analysts and bloggers cited a flat delivery.
Jindal "seemed more like a high school student giving a valedictory speech than a potential future leader of the party," wrote Philip Klein of the "American Spectator."
Said Brit Hume of Fox News: "The speech read a lot better than it sounded. This was not Bobby Jindal's greatest oratorical moment."
Some Republicans were less critical. Carl Forti, a former communications director at the National Republican Congressional Committee, said one speech will not ruin Jindal's presidential chances. "People are watching him right after they watched Obama, and Obama may be better than Reagan," said Forti. "I'm sure that affected people's opinion."
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said today he thought the speech was "OK."
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