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Washington: Louisiana's Indian American Governor Bobby Jindal has asked
Republicans to "stop being the stupid party" as he forcefully
rejected Mitt Romney's claim that President Barack Obama won with
"gifts" to minorities and young voters.
"No, I think that's absolutely wrong," a visibly agitated Jindal,
the incoming chairman of the Republican Governors' Association,
told reporters Wednesday when asked about the defeated Republican
nominee's reported comments on a conference call with donors.
"Two points on that: One, we have got to stop dividing the
American voters," he said at a press conference that opened the
RGA's post-election meeting in Las Vegas, according to Politico,
an influential Washington news site focused on politics.
"We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent. We
need to go after every single vote," he said in an apparent
reference to Romney's controversial comments during the campaign
that 47 percent of Americans were 'moochers' whom the Republicans
could not hope to win.
"And, secondly, we need to continue to show how our policies help
every voter out there achieve the American Dream, which is to be
in the middle class, which is to be able to give their children an
opportunity to be able to get a great education... So, I
absolutely reject that notion, that description. I think that's
absolutely wrong."
He reiterated the points for emphasis.
Considered a likely candidate for the Republican presidential
nomination in 2016, he blamed Romney's defeat last week on his
failure to outline a vision for where he wanted to take the
country.
Earlier, in an interview with Politico, Jindal said the Republican
party needs to "stop being the stupid party" and truly expand its
tent.
"It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand
this year with offensive, bizarre comments - enough of that," he
was quoted saying.
"It's not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid
within our party, but it can't be tolerated within our party.
We've also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to
stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the
American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of
the voters."
Keeping mum about his interest in a 2016 presidential run, he told
Politico: "I got the best job in the world and I'm going to be
focused on being governor of this great state for the next three
years and being chairman of RGA next year and getting a bunch of
great Republican governors elected."
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
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