BOOK REVIEW, Leadership and Crisis, 2-2011

Jindal, Bobby. Leadership and Crisis
2010. 283 pages.
Regnery Publishing, distrib. by Perseus Books.
ISBN 978-1-59698-158-4.
$27.95 hardcover
Published Midwest Book Review (Reviewers Bookwatch 3/2011,Joanne's Bookshelf), Published The Livingston County News 3/24/11

--Joanne Conrad Reviewer

“The federal government was having workers clean the [BP oil-contaminated] marshes with the equivalent of paper towels.” America imports scientists and engineers because our education system “can’t produce enough of them here at home.” Trillions spent on the war on poverty for 40 years has hardly changed the poverty rate. Medicare is unsustainable.
These issues, many of which affect all of us, as well as those about congress, immigration, healthcare, energy, defense, Hurricane Katrina, and culture are Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s topics in his new book Leadership and Crisis (2010, Regnery Publishing). He joins other Republicans such as Gingrich, Huckabee, Romney, Pawlenty, Palin, and others who are writing books these days. A “zealous proponent of free enterprise and an unapologetic advocate of American capitalism,” Jindal critiques the issues and offers solutions.
It’s hard to believe federal delays led to more spreading oil in the BP explosion. For example, the “feds shut down barges” needed to deploy booms because they needed “inspections and certifications.” The feds wanted “barges to return to port so they could count life jackets and extinguishers” and refused Louisiana’s request that inspectors go to the barges instead. After the barges returned to port for 24 hours, the feds eventually allowed their resumption without inspections. A week after the explosion, one site still had “boom and other matériel sitting on docks with skimmers nearby that were idle.” A Coast Guard Admiral admitted “not requesting skimmers from Europe” because they might “take 5 weeks to arrive.” The “…system was incapable of working quickly and efficiently. It was highly centralized, bureaucratic, and often unresponsive.” He says, “The reason the federal government failed to respond effectively to the oil spill (and for…Katrina 5 years earlier) is precisely because government has become too big.” He also says “BP’s response was as bad as the federal government’s.” His solution: a 10 point checklist, two of which are involving locals as they are on the ground and know their area firsthand, and often know more than the “Nobel Laureates,” and “don’t wait for feds…” to tell what to do.
His position on education uses his experience as Governor and also heading the University of Louisiana, which has 8 universities and is the 16th largest in the country. He graduated from Brown University and attended Harvard and Oxford. He says, “With our dysfunctional education system, we risk being overtaken by other nations.” He found that Louisiana was funding education based on enrollment, not results, and stated his concern about America’s not producing scientists and engineers. His concerns include the true lack of educational opportunity when students attend schools based on their zip code. He advocates pay for performance, school choice and charter schools, special scholarships, discipline, improved personal conduct with more parental involvement, different suspension standards, and true competition for students, as the latter forces school officials to focus on getting results. He compares university students to public school students, saying the better results for university students is the competition for them, versus K-12 “owning” students. As Governor, he has signed serious education reform, such as a Teacher Evaluation Bill in 2010, Teacher’s Bill of Rights, Red Tape Reduction and Local Empowerment Act, Recovery School District for New Orleans, and Student Scholarship Program in New Orleans.
Regarding poverty in America, he cites the 40 year war on it as ineffective, saying there is now a tug of war between those who feel what made America great is freedom, individualism, limited government, and personal responsibility versus those who see Americans as lost sheep unable to function without the enlightened guidance of the educated class, a wiser elite, with government playing a larger role—that we are sheep that need sheepherders. If we care, we would support a larger government agenda, but if we oppose, it means we “don’t give a damn.” There are times government needs to lend a hand, but it should also include help from the bottom up via individuals, civic society, etc. He cites Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks, who demonstrated that those skeptical of big government are actually more charitable, giving the lie that some people “don’t give a damn.” He further states, “…the most corrupt countries in the world [are] at the top of the list of centralized economies.”
As for Medicare and Medicaid, he writes at length about free market and capitalist solutions because enlarging government programs deter free choice and the expense is disproportionate to good results. In 1965, Medicare A was projected to cost $9 billion by 1990; it became $67 billion that year, and now media reports are that the entitlements may bankrupt the U. S.
Space prohibits his solutions for congress, immigration, energy, defense, disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and the culture of America. Suffice it that they are conservative principles.
He ends with a 7 step recovery program for America. It is a very readable book, having 18 pages of sources and an index. C-span has archived his book release speech of Nov. 20, 2010, which showcases his charismatic rhetoric (much better than his Republican response to Pres. Obama’s first speech to Congress in 2009) and is worth seeing (www.c-span.org and search its video library).
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