for some time. Our first meeting was brief, but memorable. After swapping a few pleasantries about our mutual English alma mater, he spoke gravely of Katrina and the plight of those hurt by the disaster, as well as the significant job that lay ahead as Governor of Louisiana. Since that day I’ve had two other opportunities to speak with Governor Jindal, and suffice it to say: I’m a very big fan. Many are already aware of Mr. Jindal’s impressive background, but rigorous scrutiny beyond the sterling academic credentials, blue chip employers, and political victories reveals a man whose entire life story is a testament to the American promise and the consistent deployment of bedrock conservative principles.
A Track Record of Results
From Oxford he went to work for McKinsey & Company, the much vaunted management consulting firm known as a Tier 1 advisor to the largest corporations in the world. Anyone who spends any time with Mr. Jindal will immediately realize that he is not only very bright, but is willing to dive deep into any subject matter and develop thoughtful positions that are supported with detailed facts and thorough analysis. This is not a man who would prefer to employ soaring rhetoric to spew platitudes and revel in superficiality.
He won the congressional seat from the 1st district with 78 percent of the vote, including strong support from small business owners. In keeping with his history of over achievement, he was elected freshman class president and was appointed to the House Committee on Homeland Security, the House Committee on Resources, and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He was made vice-chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attacks. As a Congressman, he was a member of the conservative
In 1996, Mr. Jindal became Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Upon his arrival the Department with its 12,000 employees represented nearly 40 percent of the state budget and was bordering on bankruptcy with a $400 million deficit. At the end of his tenure as Secretary, the Department had enjoyed three years of surpluses totaling $220 million. By 1998, Mr. Jindal was appointed executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, a 17-member panel charged with devising plans to reform Medicare. The next year, at the request of the Governor’s Office and the State Legislature, he volunteered his time to study how Louisiana might use its $4.4 billion An American Story tobacco settlement. Later that year, he became the youngest Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to recently arrived Indian ever president of the University of Louisiana System, the immigrant parents, Mr. Jindal started life the way many 16th largest higher education of America’s citizens have, system in the country which into a family that dreamed oversees the education of of a better life in a far away approximately 80,000 students place and had the courage a year. During his tenure he to pursue it. His father was was instrumental in raising one of nine children and the graduation rates, retention only one to be educated past rates, increasing private the fifth grade. This is the donations and the number of kind of background that can endowed chair positions. He serve to remind a person that also implemented the state’s anything is possible in life first teacher guarantees and and especially in America. A faculty rotation programs. In Catholic since high school, March 2001, he was nominated Mr. Jindal’s life seems to have Jindal and family at church services. by President George W. Bush been guided by two consistent to be Assistant Secretary of themes: very hard work; and Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation. a steadfast adherence to a conservative orthodoxy. He was unanimously confirmed by a bipartisan vote of the Graduating Baton Rouge Magnet High School at age United States Senate and began serving on July 9, 2001. In sixteen, Bobby Jindal left the South for the Ivy League. that position, he served as the principal policy advisor to the Opting to attend Brown University, he focused on Biology Secretary of Health and Human Services. On February 21, and Public Policy. Continued academic excellence was 2003, he resigned to return to Louisiana and make his first rewarded with a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, run for governor. After a narrow loss, Mr. Jindal turned his where he wrote for the New Oxford Review, and received a attention to Congress. Masters in political science.
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