Let The Party Begin!

Apparently, it was ad-libbed and not part of the Governor's prepared remarks, because it does not appear in this transcript. But I noticed it when I heard Bobby Jindal's response last night to President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, and you can hear it here (homonym happy today; video below):

Good evening, and happy Mardi Gras. I'm Bobby Jindal.

Of course it's trivial, or seemingly so, but....

What on earth was the Louisiana Governor doing wishing us a "happy Mardi Gras?"

Now, we know that Repubs for years (or at least before nominating this year the surly John McCain) have tagged their opponents as "gloom and doom Democrats" and Obama was being advised before his speech above all to be optimistic about the economy, but- "happy Mardi Gras?"

It was the wrong tone (struck virtually throughout by the Governor), completely inappropriate to the context of last night's addresses, a dysfunctional economy deteriorating weekly, if not daily. And it should have brought to the mind of members of the Fourth Estate that this was the same party which nominated a 72-year-old presidential candidate who trumpeted "America First" while he selected Sarah Palin to be a heartbeat (or, in this case, a carcinoma) from the presidency. A presidential nominee who not too long ago declared "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" running with someone who couldn't name a newspaper she read, yet who somehow could discern that an opponent promising a tax cut to roughly 90% of the public was a "socialist." An unserious presidential nominee, an unserious vice-presidential nominee, and now an unserious potential presidential candidate. And an unserious party.