It’s Kenneth

I remember reading a spot a few months ago on new measures Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal took regarding the state’s health care and e-mailing my dad, saying that if I had to hedge my bets on a GOP pick for 2012, they’d be on him.

This was further supported by news that Jindal was giving the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s address to Congress. Then, though, it all came crashing down with a Facebook invitation I received hours after the speech: “So-and-so has invited you to join the group ‘Bobby Jindal is Kenneth the Page.’”

In the spirit of college kids wasting time online, it spread like wildfire.

Now, two weeks after Jindal glided eerily out of the corners of a Louisiana governor’s mansion and into the national spotlight, that Facebook group has more than 20,000 members.

Web sites like Politico and the Huffington Post are running semi-serious-sounding analyse of the political effects of “30 Rock,” and Kenneth the Page himself (played by Jack McBrayer) made an official response to the Internet response to Jindal’s reply on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show. He assured the nation that he was nothing like the governor, and by contrast, “this Jindal guy sounds like a real goober ... natorial representative.”

The Internet machine created an exponential monster that turned the Hermione Granger of the Republican party into a comedy writer’s field day. Jon Stewart hopped on the train, and it was all over. Kids these days!

The thing is, it’s sticking.

In an age swimming with bloggingheads and Google Reader, no one seems to care that the guy was a Rhodes Scholar, elected to the U.S. House at 33 and elected governor at 36. Jindal’s precocious rise to fame is considered by many to pose him as a serious contender for the party’s nomination for president in 2012.

But some pundits foreshadow a sharp downturn in Jindal’s chances as a result of what many are calling the “Kenneth problem.”

Over the long haul, most viewers don’t remember the content of a given speech, only the general impression it left with them. The now-famous oration Obama gave as the 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote speaker that vaulted him into the national spotlight as a rising phenomenon is surely not remembered for its specifics, but how it somehow made an impact in viewers’ minds that “this guy is going to be famous.”

The Jindal response? Two years from now, will people think back, trying to place memories of what they can remember about Bobby Jindal, and come up with, “Oh yeah, that’s that guy who reminded everyone of the awkward intern from ‘30 Rock’”?

Impressions matter – and this one was an epic failure. I don’t know if it’s quite time for Jindal to go on Saturday Night Live opposite Kenneth the Page just yet, but I sure wouldn’t be giving any more speeches titled anything remotely close to the nerd-factor of “Americans Can Do Anything” in the near future.