In the last week Republicans have come to the abrupt realization that they have to woo women, minorities, and young voters. They still aren’t entirely sure how they’ll do that, but it seems Mitt Romney missed the memo entirely. On a conference call with donors this afternoon he blamed his election loss on President Obama’s “gifts” to these groups in a speech that was reminiscent of his “47 percent” diatribe. Bobby Jindal might have tolerated those remarks during the election, but now it’s a different story. “I absolutely reject that notion, that description,” said Jindal at the annual Republican Governors Association meeting. “I think that’s absolutely wrong.”
Politico reports that Jindal appeared “visibly agitated” while discussing Romney’s comments. He continued:
That has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election: If we’re going to continue to be a competitive party and win elections on the national stage and continue to fight for our conservative principles, we need two messages to get out loudly and clearly: One, we are fighting for 100 percent of the votes, and secondly, our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream. Period. No exceptions.
Toward the end of the press conference, Jindal brought up Romney again, saying that while he’s an “honorable person that needs to be thanked for his many years of public service,” he ran a shoddy campaign that focused too much on his biography and experiences:
You have to have a vision. You have to connect your policies to the aspirations of the American people. I don’t think the campaign did that, and as a result this became a contest between personalities. And you know what? Chicago won that.
Romney can’t be upset about Jindal’s sharp words, since he gave him fair warning. On Monday he said of the election, “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.”
