Jindal-Palin, Obama-Hillary for 2012?

Tonight's spotlight on Bobby Jindal to rebut Obama's speech to Congress shows Republican reverting to the finest traditions of show business, type casting, in the wake of last year's election disaster.

Just as Marilyn Monroe begot Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren and one TV reality show spawned dozens more, the GOP now has an African-American chairman and is pushing forward Jindal and Sarah Palin to duke it out in the 2012 primaries--a plot twist with two demographically appealing young governors of different genders to repeat last year's electoral success of the Democratic senators.

Like all type casting and knockoffs, the problem is a severe drop in quality of the product. Sarah Palin, it is amply clear, is no Hillary Clinton, and the Indian-American Louisiana governor is showing some of Barack Obama's rhetorical style but little of the substance.

Nonetheless, GOP hopes are high. "Gov. Jindal," says the director of the Republican Governors Association, "provides the outside-the-beltway, not D.C., perspective. And he's one of the smartest policy minds in the country. He's not perceived as an overtly political person."

Say what? Spouting conservative platitudes, Jindal is refusing stimulus money for the unemployed on the flimsiest grounds, leading the New York Times to observe in an editorial:

"Governors like Mr. Jindal should be worrying about how to end this recession while helping constituents feed and house their families--not about finding ways to revive tired election-year arguments about big spending versus small government."

It's encouraging to see Republicans trying to get into the 21st century, but they may want to take a closer look at show business' dismal record with sequels, retreads and reruns.