Our View: Jindal’s on a quixotic quest

Ted Kennedy’s response to losing the 1980 Iowa Democratic primary to incumbent Jimmy Carter was typical of the Kennedy brothers: wry and delivered with a smile.

“Thirty-one percent of Iowa voters can’t be wrong,” he said, grinning at the cameras and ruminating the results of his failed efforts in the Hawkeye State.

Bobby Jindal only wishes he had 31 percent of the Iowa Republican vote these days. Louisiana’s wandering governor is drawing 4 percent of the vote in a crowded field, despite making his way through half of the state’s 99 counties. It’s better than the 1 percent he polls nationally; his campaign maintains he is encouraged.

The governor, determined to deliver his conservative message to all 99, will fight his way through the Feb. 1 Iowa caucus, no matter how many Iowans he bothers. It may beat governing back home where Louisiana cannot pay the bills.

Jindal’s guiding light, campaign manager Timmy Teepell, tells Gannett Louisiana that Iowa holds the key to future success. A good showing there would launch Jindal into the upper echelon of GOP hopefuls and would propel him to success elsewhere, Teepell says.

“Our Iowa polls look good and the crowds are good,” Teepell says. Four percent? Good?

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was polling higher than that in Iowa when he pulled the plug on his sputtering campaign, returning to Wisconsin and his day job as chief executive. Former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas also dropped out when he was showing single-digit support, a less than Texas-size portion of the electorate.

In fact, Fox newswoman Megyn Kelly, who has dealt with Jindal before, seemed to suggest in a recent televised interview with Jindal that he might consider following Walker out of the race because of those low numbers. Jindal shrugged off her comments.

You’ve got to admire the enthusiasm. Jindal is no quitter and supremely self-confident. But you also have to wonder about the basis of his enthusiasm. He’s down in the polls in a right-wing state, excluded from the prime time debates and virtually mocked on Fox. That’s a bad place for a conservative to be.

No one’s suggesting the governor should come home. The state is in the capable hands of the lieutenant governor, who has logged much experience as interim governor over the course of Jindal’s journeys over the past two years.

Jindal is Iowa’s issue these days, not ours. He’ll continue as he has — cashing Louisiana’s paychecks, eating lots of grain and cheering on the Iowa Hawkeyes. He’s got a lance and goodness knows, Iowa’s got the windmills.

Like Cervantes’ Don Quixote, you can see him riding into the Iowa sunset, telling the skeptics as the hero told Sancho Panza, “You don’t know much about adventures.”