No way Just when the big breakthrough was coming

Just like the one Rob Ryan kept saying was right around the corner.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Tuesday said he was ending his presidential bid, saying “this is not my time.”

Jindal had struggled to gain traction in the race, often failing to poll at even 1 percent in some surveys. He also underwhelmed in the money race, and had just $261,000 in the bank heading into October.

If only he'd found a little more bandwidth.

With Jindal out of the way we can reset our figuring as to which non-Trump and non-Jeb candidate is going to be the surprise post-Iowa frontrunner.  Jindal was always a long shot for that. But he was a much better long shot than many observers gave him credit for.  At least, his rhetoric and positioning was always well calibrated to meet what GOP primary voters are responding to this year.  Jindal's real problem was always that the candidate himself was just too obviously smug, too obviously phony, too.. much of an obvious nerd, really.

Anyway, there's an argument to be made that the next best positioned candidate due for a boomlet is Ted Cruz.  I thought it was interesting that Trump gave him this backhanded stamp of approval today. Remember, Trump will not be the nominee. But, as the unofficial mascot/ID of the party, it does matter that he approves of what the more "serious" candidates say and do.

On the other hand Cruz, very much like Jindal, can also be described as smug, phony, and nerdy.  But maybe just a little less... oh what is it?


Update:  I just remembered. Jindal says 2016 is "not my time."  He once told us how much he preferred the 19th Century so maybe he's right about that.