re: 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.