Jindal praises Obama; says give his administration a chance

Washington, Apr 17 (PTI) Disagreeing with his party
leaders who of late have been very critical of US President
Barack Obama, the Louisiana Governor and Republican rising
star Bobby Jindal has said that the Obama Administration needs
to be given a chance.

"Let's give the new administration a chance. Let's not
question their intentions, but let's have a real debate on
their policies," Jindal, an Indian American, told the ABC news
in an interview.

When asked about recent rhetoric from top Republican
leaders including the former Vice President, Dick Cheney, who
in a CNN interview had alleged that Obama is making US unsafe,
Jindal said: "Democrat or Republican, we should all agree that
our current President and our former President would obviously
want to do everything they could to keep us safe. I don't
think we should question President Obama's patriotism or his
intentions."

Jindal said it's fine to have an honest disagreement on
the policies that both administrations would choose to try to
keep the US safe. "I am quite honestly pleasantly surprised to
see that President Obama has shown more flexibility when it
comes to Iraq than maybe some of the campaign rhetoric
suggested," Jindal said appreciating some the foreign policy
initiatives of Obama.

"We're hearing him say that, for example -- at least if
not him, his senior officials are saying we'll listen to
commanders on the ground. Hearing more flexibility, if they
decide they need more troops beyond the deadlines that they
set up in the campaign, they're willing to listen to that and
maybe adjust their plans," he said.

"That's the kind of pragmatism -- listening to the
commanders on the ground, I think's very important," he added.

However, Jindal objected to Obama's recent overseas
statement that tended to be apologetic and critical of the
former presidents.

"The President just came back from an extended trip
overseas. At some point we need to stop going overseas and
apologising, criticising our predecessors," he said.

Observing that Obama is well received in foreign
countries, Jindal said he would like to see more substantive
changes from US allies. "I would have liked to have seen NATO
put more troops in Afghanistan. I would have liked to have
seen more consensus on the economic challenges we're facing
internationally," he said.

"So I hope we're moving beyond the campaign into more
substantive policies. At the end of the day, I don't think we
should be questioning either this or previous administration's
intentions, but I think it's fair to have a debate on the
policies," Jindal said. PTI