Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, often mentioned as a presidential candidate in 2016, says the Republican party is not prepared to win the White House because they don’t have an agenda.
In a Politico op-ed, Jindal says it’s critical that Republicans win the presidency in 2016 if they have any hopes of repealing Obamacare and replacing it with something different.
But, Jindal says the party is not ready for primetime.
But the fact of the matter is that we in the Republican Party are not yet prepared to take on the task of winning back the White House. And our lack of preparation has nothing to do with candidates—it has to do with our agenda. The voters know that we oppose Obama. What they don’t really know is what we would do if they gave us the car keys. How would we reform and improve education? What is our plan for health care, once we repeal Obamacare? How will we make America energy independent? What exactly will we do to stop our entitlement programs from going bankrupt? And how will we get America’s economy growing again? The voters demand answers to these questions. And they deserve them.
So here’s an idea about 2016—who cares who is going to run in 2016? Well, yes, reporters do, political insiders do, people in the 202 telephone area code do, but that’s about it. So let’s call a halt to candidate-guessing parlor games. Answering the question of what should be done is more important than the question of who our nominee will be. We need to focus on substance more than personality. Or, as Margaret Thatcher said, you have to win the argument before you can win the election.
