A helium-filled trial balloon
Conservative James Lucier wrote an op/ed reprinted in the WSJ about how Bobby Jindal would be a good running mate for John McCain. Some of his points make sense: Jindal would balance the ticket with unquestioned conservative bona fides, youth and health care experience, and he’s been able to ram through some key conservative priorities in his gubernatorial honeymoon. Some are a stretch: a Latino politician or someone with direct policy experience would better address immigration, and values voters are unlikely to vote for someone who isn’t a white Southern Baptist, no matter how sincere his conversion.
But his big finish is totally daft. Lucier claims Jindal would be tough on the war on terror because he might hate Pakistanis due to the terrible losses inflicted on Punjab during Partition:
Within weeks the Muslims began a genocidal jihad against the Hindus and Sikhs to drive them out of Pakistan… Virtually all Indian Punjabis can recite these horrors chapter and verse. My guess is that if Mr. Jindal were elected vice president, he would not need to get any CIA briefings about Pakistan and Waziristan, or the nature of the terrorist threat. [Link]
Here’s a politician who only mentions his Indian background in front of wealthy uncles who write checks. He had to be prodded by white politicians to even make a public statement when Indian grad students were murdered in Louisiana.
He’s young enough that Partition is a distant nightmare in the memories of his grandparents and family in Punjab, who he reportedly isn’t in touch with. And desi Americans in their 30s are not reflexively anti-Muslim or anti-Hindu (the massacres went in all directions) the way their parents and grandparents often are after losing family in Partition.
So this is a fun, speculative piece totally disconnected from reality. But you knew that when Lucier cited Jindal’s vote to stay in Iraq as a evidence of his commitment to fight terrorists.
on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008, 9:39 pm in Bobby Jindal, Politics › 
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Of course. Eye-rack was so rife with ‘terrorism’, a safe heaven for El-kaeeda. :)
It’s like the battles and wars in olden times, fought on battle-fields which belonged to none of the parties, kind of ’staging’ areas.
Neither are desi desis ,please! They may be few and far between but believe me they exist - even amongst Punjabis and Sindhis whose families may have suffered during the Partition.
Isn’t Lucier’s labelling of the excesses of the Partition a jihad incorrect?
I am one of the desi desis whose grandparents moved from Lahore. No one in my circle of friends and acquaintances, hindus and muslims are anti one another. Obviously there are exceptions which I am sure are there in case of desi Americans as well.
I never understood why people expect him to speak out about the grad student murders simply because they were desi. He’s the governor of everyone in that State; he’s not gonna give a speech about every person who is murdered in Louisiana, is he?
Of course, I’d want him to speak out because crime is big problem for lots of people in that part of the US, but not because the victim belongs to a particular ethnic group. Any murder is abominable.
I’m glad I don’t see the world through only brown and non-brown.
These were high-profile murders in unusual circumstances, which is why white politicians fell over themselves to issue statements.
I don’t think anyone expected him to issue a statement because the students were desi, he is the governor of the state last we checked where the students were murdered.
And if those grad students weren’t Indian? Would you all care if he made a speech about them? Why even mention in at all ultrabrown or sepia mutiny or insertethnicityhere.com?
Well, I suppose you would; I do living next to a high crime area, I’m always incensed about violent criminals. I can’t stand that innocents are murdered by these, well, I can’t even think of a polite word for it.
Anyway, these articles are silly. He’s not ready for vp.
I would, they are mentioned on SM or UB because no one in the MSM seems to give two hoots, compare the coverage given to the murder of the UNC student who was white and compare it to the murders of Indian students, in Louisiana and other states.
Why doesn’t ESPN post about politics?
Fox and Friends talks about sports, though.