Interviews with several Republican leaders and private conversations with people close to both Mitt Romney and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal suggest his chance of being selected as the presumptive candidate’s running mate may be as good as any of the more visible prospects,
reports RealClearPolitics.
“He’s certainly on the shortlist as far as qualified people that could be a complement to Gov. Romney,” said Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who endorsed the now-presumptive nominee in early February and speaks weekly with his advisers.
“Gov. Romney’s hallmark is his ability to turn things around, whether the Olympics here in Utah, or turning around Massachusetts when he was governor, or turning around businesses from failure to success — that’s certainly going to be a big part of his platform, and Bobby’s done that as governor of Louisiana,” Herbert added in his comments to RCP.
“The difference between him after the BP oil spill and his Democratic predecessor [Gov. Kathleen Blanco] after Katrina could hardly have been more stark,” Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told RCP. “He was decisive, he was knowledgeable, and he was working hard for his people. There was never any question — there was no uncertainty.”
Romney and Jindal also seem to have a lot in common notes the report.
Jindal did a post-collegiate stint working as a business consultant at McKinsey & Company before entering politics, and he shares the Bain Capital co-founder’s hyper-analytical approach to governing.
Jindal also might help Romney with backing from the National Rifle Association.
“I can’t think of a governor who’s done more to stand up and protect the Second Amendment than Bobby Jindal,” Chris Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist, told RCP. “I don’t pretend to know who Gov. Romney will pick as his running mate, but when it comes to the Second Amendment, Bobby Jindal’s a great champion.”
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