Did Bobby Jindal’s 2009 Speech destroy his political career?

It may not have fully ended it. It definitely dented it. The speech came off as dry and the delivery was deadpan since it was given in an empty mansion instead of the capitol with an audience.

Now if Jindal were to have run in 2012 instead of waiting to 2016, he may have had a greater impact on the national scene without having a Donald Trump take all the air in the campaign. But he would have had to run 2 campaigns with Louisiana having its gubernatorial election cycle the year before the presidential cycle. It doesn’t give anyone an advantage to run with presidential races being a 2 year race with the first year of organizing and campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire (which grinds my gears why those two states control presidential primary process, but that is a topic for another discussion).

Back to Jindal, Jindal spent the last year or of his term pretty much absent from the governor’s mansion while the state’s coffers were whittled down to breadcrumbs as oil and gas revenues declined, and he pretty much rubber stamped anything the legislature threw at him led by Senate President and RINO John Alario. No major policy initiatives in the state were launched, the state was essentially on autopilot, as the governor had 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in his crosshairs. His focus stayed on Iowa and New Hampshire only to dropout a few weeks before the caucuses. He was left out of all the debates and maybe made the “kids” pre debate when there were 16 candidates and Fox gave the low polling candidates their own debate before the main event.

I looked at Rubio differently after his. And not in a positive way

Jindal is a lightweight

No. Bobby Jindal being a terrible governor of Louisiana killed his political career.

Bobby's second term as governor and focusing more on presidential run instead of the state is what killed his chances.

yes Ive always thought this

Bobby was super intelligent but also quite possible that he was on the "spectrum." He didn't know how to deal with average people who weren't policy wonks or political nerds.

No

Bobby had a very good first term and easily won re-election.

He had an average first two years in his second term.

But, the last two years he avoided leadership in economically challenging times to not rock the boat because he was running for president.

Lack of action and leadership, not a speech destroyed his political career.