Santelli's frustration resonated. Mere seconds after I posted the video of the scene on NRO's Web site, I started receiving "Santelli for President" e-mails from readers. Hours later, noticing the exponentially increasing enthusiasm for Santelli and his message, I had a moment of deja vu. It took me back to just after Labor Day of last year. I was in the Twin Cities, yards away from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as she delivered her vice-presidential acceptance speech at the Republican Convention. E-mails immediately began rolling in from people who said they wanted the ticket reversed -- they liked something they saw and heard in her.
Even though most of us don't watch CNBC and few of us knew much about the governor of Alaska before she stepped out onto the national stage, the enthusiasm with which many Americans responded to Palin and Santelli was similar, and it originated in a desire for leadership. In Santelli's case, people responded to his anger and common sense. In Palin's case, they reacted to her passion and folksiness.
Passion, of course, can only get you so far. And, frankly, the same goes for competence and smarts. Man cannot get elected on capability and intelligence alone. Just ask Mitt Romney. As the country edged toward the brink of financial meltdown during last year's Republican primary, there was something about the fiscally-savvy former governor of Massachusetts that did not compute with voters. Like Jindal facing an unfair playing field after the president's speech, Romney had some disadvantages not of his making that he just couldn't overcome. But as with Jindal that night, there was something people needed to hear that Romney could not manage to convey.
Jindal has a long, bright political future ahead of him. Right now, he ought to focus his energy on rebuilding and reforming the disaster- and corruption-riddled state that he so loves. And he should fight his battles as he faces them -- making clear, as he did on "Meet the Press" recently, that he'll reject federal money if the funds won't benefit residents of his state, and refusing to take part in the creation of new, unsustainable bureaucratic entities. When he does that, and does it in his element, he sings. And it's a song -- of responsibility and principle and common sense -- that we thrill to hear.