I think that the days of speaking with the goal of watching Wall Street bump up the next morning are over...that is the epitome of substanceless policymaking. Wall Street is about as tied to real life as a bunch of dudes with voodoo dolls trying to control the weather.

Bobbie Jindal looked like an absolute idiot last night, which is too bad because I think guys like him are the future of the Republican Party...whoever wrote that speech he gave needs to be shitcanned immediately, and whoever his coaches are need to be tarred and feathered and stuck in the same coach out of town as the speechwriter.

Jindal was on TV this morning and spoke unscripted and sounded like he usually sounds...bright, responsive, forthright, and honest. Last night he sounded like a kindergarten teacher reading My Pet Goat to five year olds. Even the cheerleaders on FoxNews gave him an "F", and gave Obama high marks...

It likely won't hurt his chances in the future, as Clinton's convention speech in '88 wasn't so hot, either, and it didn't hurt him...but Jindal will have to really give his public speaking a far different tenor.

I like Obama calling out the youth of America, telling them that they owe it to their country to get an education and use it...and he talked about something that I've talked about for years; encouraging every kid to do some sort of public service, whether it be local in their home town, in the Peach Corps, or serving in the military, and then helping those kids get their educations when they are done. Kind of like an expanded version of the GI Bill, one that applies to all public service, not just military service.

Not only will it give kids an ownership interest in their country, it will help them get educated and use their education to further serve their country in the coming years...very, very necessary in my book.

If the Republican Party is serious about revamping itself to represent more than just the fringe elements of the far right, then it is going to have to start coming up with stuff itself, rather than just sitting on its collective ass and saying "no"...and they really need to stop pretending that they all of a sudden grew some fiscally responsible back bones after the last eight years of running our country and economy into the ground.

They should now be fiscally responsible, but they have to actually do it, not just say that they are and do jackshit, which is what they've done the past month...unless they get a move on they're going to get further decimated in the 2010 elections.

When 80% of Americans say that the Republican Party has just been "The Party of No" over the past month, that means that more than half of the people who vote Republican think that, too, not just liberals and moderates, but a sizable portion of the conservatives, too...

Republican Governors who refuse the stimulus money better start packing their bags, too...they'll get run out office in a big way when the next cycle comes around.

Jindal is cracking me up on that one, too...for all his talk about refusing the money and how it's all full of pork, have you guys seen his current position on it?

Lousiana is being offered something like 3.8 billion in the plan...and while Jindall is tearing it up and down to pander to the quickly shrinking fringe right, he's already said he'll accept the "non pork" and "actually stimulative" parts.

Know what his measurements came up with on that? In his self-righteous anger at the "massive spending bill", he's decided to only accept a little over 3.7 billion of the 3.8 billion.

I'd call that "putting your money where your mouth is", but he's got no room in there next to both of his feet.

Fish on...

Todd