If Jindal was the answer, what was the question?

Since President Obama's speech spoke quite well for itself — and reaction to it was well received across the board — the less viewed, though roundly rebuffed, Republican response deserves special attention.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal might have set a Guinness record for the fastest flameout in presidential primary history — and there's still four years until the next election!

While Jindal probably jockeyed to deliver the Republican rebuttal to President Obama's speech, it's likely he met little resistance; there were probably few Republicans eager to follow a very popular president with their very unpopular stance on the recently legislated stimulus bill.

Jindal, who apparently (yay!) leads the cast of characters vying for leadership of the party, used his address as a means to introduce himself on the national stage. He started with an ill-advised and poorly-delivered story about his mother's emigration to the U.S. and how, since he was conceived in another country, his in utero status was a "pre-existing condition."

It's hard to imagine the nation's youngest governor could follow with anything worse … though not impossible.

The first and most enduring impression of Jindal was his tone, sounding more like he was speaking to school children than the kind of political wonk who would stay tuned at 10:50 EST to hear the GOP counterpoint.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews perfectly captured the collective national sentiment, and this before Jindal opened his mouth. The set quieted as Jindal rounded the corner, appearing more like a cardboard cutout than a warm body. As the stiff approached his spot in front of the camera, Matthews quietly uttered, "Oh gawd."

Exactly.

Beyond the inanities expected from a hard-right ideologue, whose indignation about deficit spending appears only when it's the other party doing the spending, Jindal dropped one stunning note that defied logic.

Imagine, a Republican from Louisiana using the disastrous Bush administration reaction in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as an example of why government doesn't work.

Really?!

Jindal clearly fails to understand that folks have not turned against government in general, but against the Republican way of governing specifically. One cannot point to his own failures and expect to believably paint others with the same brush.

Some might meet Jindal's postulation with incredulity, but c'mon — this is who they are! His entire monologue was predicated both on returning to failed policies that brought about the predicament in which this country is embroiled, and the expectation that the electorate is so ignorant they will believe in the Republican's fantasy notion of a high speed rail line from Disney Land to Las Vegas.

Viewers were likely pleading for one original thought or substantive idea. As has often been the case the last 8 years, they were disappointed.

In any case, Democrats certainly slept more comfortably last night with the knowledge Jindal is the new face of the Republican party.