The Bobby Bunch
A Boston Globe warhorse drew an interesting analogy today between a possible McCain-Jindal ticket and Eisenhower-Nixon. Jindal is 36, Richard Nixon was 39:
For a running mate Ike chose the young senator from California, Richard Nixon, who, at 39, provided a generational counterweight and also a salve to conservatives. George H.W. Bush was 64 when he finally secured the GOP nomination in 1988; he chose 41-year-old Dan Quayle for his running mate as a bridge to the future and, once again, a salve to conservatives… [Link]
The Nixon and Quayle analogies also work because both were sops to conservative activists:
… both tickets cleaned up in November… Like Nixon and Quayle, Jindal would provide not just an injection of youth, but also a much-needed connection to conservatives… [Link]
This bureau chief thinks Jindal’s model minority status and wholehearted assimilationism is easier to sell as quintessentially American than Barack Obama’s story, which is tinged with the bitterness of growing up black in America:
Jindal’s embrace of America has been less freighted. As a 4-year-old he stopped using his given name, Piyush, and took that of his favorite TV character, Bobby Brady. He is in many ways the modern equivalent of the European immigrants of the early 20th century, who often anglicized their names… Jindal presents this vision with fewer reservations than Obama, and could make Obama seem less patriotic in comparison. [Link]
on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008, 9:52 pm in Barack Obama, Bobby Jindal, John McCain, Politics › 
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I agree with the Ike-Tricky Dick analogy as applying most directly to a possible McCain-Jindal ticket.
The Reagan-GHWB analogy appears to suggest McCain should go with Romney, though Canellos doesn’t say it explicitly, and it also geographically balances the ticket in the same way that Reagan-GHWB did, apart from giving Massachusetts a son on the ticket. But Romney is no Episcopalian WASP, and America may be readier for a brown Catholic than a white Mormon on a national ticket.
With McCain getting a clean bill of health over the weekend, the initial speculation that his weekend party was just a diversionary tactic holds no water. Plus, now he has to think about which constituency would feel let down the most, now that he’s let on the names he’s actually considering, and what that would cost him. I think the constituency Jindal might be seen to represent - Catholics, conservatives, brown Republicans, some coat-tailing Southerners - is one McCain would definitely want on his side. So if I were McCain, I’d announce early and build momentum going in, and not wait till the Convention.
That should let the attention to shift to Obama’s running mate, especially now that Hillary has written herself off from being considered.
Maybe, but neither would fly at the moment. Conservatives can’t cope with change or new ideas. I’m guessing they’d sooner not-vote than support anyone who’s not 100% (male) WASP. They’ll take our $ and votes, but won’t allow a brown face to represent them yet.
Janet Napolitano is the woman for Obama. Sucks to Hillary. She played herself.
Manish…how are gonna leave Bridget out of the Bobby Bunch? Getting lazy on the photoshopping, man - too much arbi
Jindal does not buy Mccain anything significant.
Nixon and Quayle did,
Wonder if then Hillary will perform the McCains black illegitimate running push poll