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By: Henry A. Darger on Tue May 6, 2008

There’s been much speculation that John McCain will announce Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal as his running mate, the least of which is from McCain staffers themselves, who see the 37 year old Governor and self-declared policy wonk as a lively and intelligent foil to Mr. Barack Obama. (A late April appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno helped push that idea to the forefront of the national consciousness.) But who is Bobby Jindal? Is Bobby Jindal simply a Roman Catholic Christian, a convert from Hinduism, a Louisiana Republican, a social conservative, or something more? Mr. Jindal has recently been thrust into the public spotlight, and scant information outside his home state appears in the media, but though his ascent has been rapid, Mr. Jindal has managed to accomplish quite a bit in his brief period of involvement in public life.

Bobby Jindal’s Youth
Mr. Jindal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on June 10, 1971 to an engineer father, and a mother who was at the time pursuing a graduate degree in nuclear physics. The couple had moved at the beginning of 1971 to the United States from India so Mr. Jindal’s mother could attend Louisiana State University.

Early on in his youth, Mr. Jindal changed his name to Bobby, after a character in the television series ‘The Brady Bunch,’ (Bobby Jindal’s real name is Piyush) and there were more transformations as time went on, as Mr. Jindal converted to Catholicism from Hinduism following the death of his grandfather.

The Education of Bobby Jindal
Mr. Jindal attended Brown University, Phi Bet Kappa, and graduated with degrees in Biology and Public Policy. After graduating from Brown, Mr. Jindal turned down admission offers to the Harvard and Yale medical and law, in order that he could attend New College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. In the summer of his senior year, Mr. Jindal interned under Louisiana Republican congressman Jim McCrery, wowing the congressman with a detailed paper on state-wide healthcare reform that didn’t depend on exploiting a well-known Medicaid funding loophole.

Bobby Jindal’s CV
After university, Mr. Jindal was hired to work with Washington Consulting firm McKinsey & Company, before returning to his home state and being appointed the secretary of state for the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals: an appointment that shocked many, as he was only 24 years old at the time. Mr. Jindal managed to turn the department around, cutting quickly and balancing the books – turning a $400 million deficit into a $170 million surplus. After that, it was only up for Mr. Jindal, as he chaired the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, headed the University of Louisiana school system (where he pushed for higher admission standards and specialization), and eventually became assistant secretary of the US Department of Health & Services under President Bush.

Bobby Jindal as Governor
Mr. Jindal first ran for Governor in 2003, losing to Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. Taking stock, Mr. Jindal ran successfully for Congress, before returning to state politics for a second run. His second run was more successful following Ms. Blanco’s retirement, and Mr. Jindal was elected governor of Louisiana on October 20th, 2007 with 54% of the vote, becoming the first Indian-American governor, and proclaiming that he was intent on “cleaning up the corruption” that had long plagued the state since the days of Huey Long.

Six weeks into Mr. Jindal’s term, he passed a series of bills pertaining to governmental ethics which put Louisiana in the top-tier of states with tough ethics policies. Mr. Jindal believed that government and bureaucratic corruption was stifling investment in the state. Under the bills, all state legislators and most elected and appointed state government officials will be forced to disclose any income, real estate and debts over $10,000; representatives and officials will not be allowed to bid on state-contract or disaster-related work or repair; lobbyists must disclose income sources and can spend no more than $50 per meal, per elected official;

Social Policy Positions
Mr. Jindal is a staunch social conservative, who opposes abortion in any case, supports the teaching of intelligent design in schools, and doesn’t think should be involved in sex education. Mr. Jindal also opposes public funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Mr. Jindal’s social policies have attracted criticism, but Mr. Jindal’s appeal appears to transcend such concerns, particularly in his home-state of Louisiana, where economic and financial concerns are given more importance.

Family
Mr. Jindal’s wife, Supriya, has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and an M.B.A. from Tulane, and a doctorate from LSU. The couple have three children, Celia, Shaan and Slade. Mr. Jindal helped deliver his third child, when Ms. Jindal woke up one night in the middle of labor.

Running Mate for Vice President?
At the end of April, a number of people on the John McCain team were talking about picking Mr. Jindal as the Mr. McCain’s running mate in his presidential bid. Mr. Jindal, at age 36, would be thought to help assuage concerns about Mr. McCain’s age. Mr. McCain is 71.

Update!
On May 22nd, it was announced that Republican Bobby Jindal, the Indian-American Governor of Louisiana state, will be spending the weekend with the Republican presidential candidate John McCain, which some are taking to be confirmation that Bobby Jindal is the front-runner for the Vice President's post. The New York Times reported that John McCain is meeting with Bobby Jindal and two other "potential running mates at a gathering at his ranch this weekend in Arizona, suggesting that he is stepping up his search for a vice-presidential candidate."

Governor Bobby Jindal, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and former Governor Mitt Romney, are all meeting with John McCain at his ranch in Sedona, Arizona.

The only question left to ask is Bobby Jindal, running mate?