By IANS,
New York : Indian American Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana Governor, has blamed his own Republican party – its policies, leadership and the malaise within – for its defeat in the Nov 4 US presidential elections.
The young leader, who is often termed the next Reagan of the Republican Party and now its ‘Barack Obama’, in an interview to the MSNBC news channel Tuesday, said the campaign of Senator John McCain in itself was not solely responsible for his defeat and there are other detrimental factors too.
It is time for the party leadership to address these issues in order to start winning again, Jindal asserted. Not only did John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, lose to the charismatic Democratic Senator Barack Obama, but the party’s strength in the Senate and House of Representatives has reduced significantly after its defeat in the Nov 4 elections.
“There are basically three things we’ve got to correct for us to start winning elections again,” Jindal said. “Number one, our actions have to match our rhetoric,” he said, explaining that the Republican Party has talked about spending discipline, cutting taxes, and “yet we were defending out-of-control spending in Washington we would have rightfully criticised in the other party.”
Secondly, Jindal argued that the Republican leadership would have to work to root out corruption within its own ranks.
“A week before the election, you’ve got our most senior United States senator convicted of federal charges. We can’t defend behaviour again that we would rightfully criticise on the other side,” he said.
Finally and most importantly, the Louisiana Governor said, Republicans would once again have to be the party of solutions.
“We have to apply our conservative principles to the challenges that are confronting the American people, whether it’s the rising cost of health care, whether it’s the economy, whether it’s international challenges,” he said.
“We have to show real solutions. It’s not enough — you can’t win an election simply by criticising the other side,” Jindal said.