I think that is a good point Thresh, there should be some freedom for an executive to solicit advice free of outside interference, but I took Jindal's mistake to be, like Obama, making blanket statements with respect to "openness and transparency" without any qualification, making it much easier for opponents to attack him at the first perceived breach of that promise. I think Alan being a Louisiana native has a better handle on just how much graft and corruption goes on there, I am guessing they can give Chicago and DC a run for their money. If a new sheriff comes into town on a platform to clean things up, he ought to be a little more careful in how he intends to do that. In the grand scheme of things a PR blunder is not on par with executing insane policy with thuggish tactics ala Obama, so in that regard I'll cut Jindal some slack, but I think it fair to say he seems to be prone to making mistakes from time to time that leave people scratching their heads. Another part of the problem is that he burst onto the scene so fast and was hailed as a rising star and as such is being more scrutinized and critiqued. He was perhaps built up too much, and our expectations of him were equally over built.