Jindal's Kenneth problem

By: Andy Barr
Politico
March 7, 2009

Bobby Jindal has a wunderkind resume: a Rhodes Scholar appointed assistant secretary of Health and Human Services at age 29, elected to the U.S. House at 33 and governor of Louisiana at 36.

Increasingly, though, he’s being likened to Kenneth, the dweeby page on “30 Rock.”

The politically devastating comparisons started popping right up after Jindal delivered the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s address a joint session of Congress. And they’ve spread like wildfire on the Internet.

“Close your eyes and think of Kenneth from ‘30 Rock.’ I can barely count the number of e-mails making that observation,” Andrew Sullivan wrote on his blog minutes after Jindal’s speech. The comparison was also made that night by Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post and Gawker.

Now the wunderkind governor, who’s often mentioned as a GOP presidential prospect, is struggling to overcome his association with this generation's version of Gomer Pyle. And his predicament is organic, as opposed to the biting parodies of Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live.”

(More here.)