As you all may know by now I am a politics junkie, I love discussing politics on a daily basis. I was talking to a friend of mine today who happens to be white and he asked me about the possibility of Indians-Americans voting Republican if Bobby Jindal is the Republican VP pick. He was wondering if they would vote Republican just for that. My short answer was no, my longer answer is below the fold.
The reason it would not be the case comes down to one concept: religion. As you may know Jindal decided in high school that should convert to Christianity from Hinduism and did so. To me that is fine religion is a personal choice. But to a lot of my fellow Indian-Americans it is a slap in the face. They see it as pandering, changing his religion so he would do better in politics. Some of them don't even consider him Indian anymore. I have gotten this opinion from tons of Indians all over the country and it is because of this that they do not have a real connection with Jindal. So I do not see Indian-Americans turning out to vote for Jindal. Is this true for all Indian-Americans no, but I think it applies to a majority of them.
As for the choice of Jindal for the VP slot I don't think it the best. Jindal just won his first term as governor, now I know that some of you might be saying but Obama is also in his first term but there is a difference. Jindal was in his first term as a US Congressman when he ran for governor. If he becomes the VP nominee it is going to seem like he is just interested in moving up, a bad image for him to have. So I think he serve out his term as Governor.
Other than that he seems like a good choice for McCain, he would be popular with the social conservatives and is a policy wonk. I don't think him being brown will hurt him as he won in LA where there are a ton of very conservative white people.
Anyway that all I got.
Later
SensibleDemocrat