Jindal to GOP: 'Change Everything'

Bobby Jindal delivered the keynote address at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting last night, a speech billed as a "rebuttal" to Barack Obama's inaugural address, but he took aim as much at his own party as Obama's. Jindal said that while Republicans should stick by their "timeless" conservative principles, "we might need to change just about everything else we do." He repeated his much-quoted line that "we must stop being the stupid party," decrying the "offensive and bizarre comments" that have damaged Republicans. "It's time for a new Republican party that talks like adults."

Jindal said conservatives had become too wrapped up in thinking about Washington. "We seem to have an obsession with government bookkeeping," he said. "If our vision is not bigger than that, we do not deserve to win." He called for "re-thinking nearly every social program," among other, radical moves. "What we are doing now to govern ourselves is not just wrong. It is out of date and it is a failure." The speech was clearly intended to position Jindal for an expected 2016 presidential run, but according to Zeke Miller at BuzzFeed, it "appeared to be coolly received" by Republicans in the room. (More Bobby Jindal stories.)