Jindal set to attack Trump

Nevertheless, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has scheduled a speech Thursday in Washington at which aides say he will aggressively take on Trump. “The governor will talk about the completely unserious notion of Donald Trump as president of the United States,” top adviser Curt Anderson told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “He’s not going to pull any punches.”

Jindal “doesn’t believe it makes any sense to argue policies or ideology with Trump, because he doesn’t have any,” continued Anderson. The only way to do that, Anderson said, is “to expose him as a clown.”

One reasonable question to ask about Jindal’s plan is: Why? If other candidates have suffered in the polls as a result of tangling with Trump, why does Jindal think it would work out any better for him? Anderson and fellow Jindal adviser Timmy Teepell argued that Jindal would do things differently, and besides, said Anderson, “I did hear a pundit say that yes, the people who have attacked Trump have gone down in the polls, and the people who have not attacked Trump have gone down in the polls.”

Still, it seems an odd time for Jindal to go on the offensive against the front-runner. Jindal has quietly been climbing in the polls in Iowa, the result of lots of face-to-face politicking. He makes a good impression on people who have never seen him before. That’s all positive. Why risk it by going so negative?

Jindal’s advisers attribute his strategy to the urgency of the moment. The country is at a pivotal point, Jindal believes, and there may never be another chance to get it back on track. To entrust that chance to Trump would be a disaster. “America is slipping away from us, and Trump is not bringing solutions,” said Teepell. “This is a golden opportunity for conservatives.” And not one, Jindal will argue, to be wasted on Donald Trump.