Indian-American Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has rejected Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's claim that President Barack Obama won November 6 elections with "gifts" to voters and asked his party colleagues to "stop being the stupid party."
Jindal, considered as a likely Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential elections, in fact lashed out at Romney for his failure to outline a vision for where he wanted to take the country and took a dig at his "47 per cent" remark.
Romney in a conference call with his fund raisers argued that Barack Obama won the elections because the "gifts" his administration gave to key voter blocks including African Americans, Hispanics and young women.
"The President's campaign focused on giving targeted groups a big gift -- so he made a big effort on small things. Those small things, by the way, add up to trillions of dollars," Romney was quoted as saying on a conference call with donors by the Los Angeles.
Jindal rejected such an explanation of Romney's defeat.
"No, I think that's absolutely wrong. Two points on that: One, we have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 per cent of the votes, not 53 per cent. We need to go after every single vote," he told reporters at a news conference of Republican Governors Association (RGA) in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Jindal is incoming chairman of RGA.
"Secondly, we need to continue to show how our policies help every voter out there achieve the American Dream, which is to be in the middle class, which is to be able to give their children an opportunity to be able to get a great education. So, I absolutely reject that notion, that description. I think that's absolutely wrong," he said.
"I don't think that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party. That has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election: If we're going to continue to be a competitive party and win elections on the national stage and continue to fight for our conservative principles, we need two messages to get out loudly and clearly:
"One, we are fighting for 100 per cent of the votes, and secondly, our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream. Period. No exceptions,"Jindal said.
The Louisiana Governor also lashed out at Romney for not being able to connect to the people.
"Governor Romney is an honorable person that needs to be thanked for his many years of public service, but his campaign was largely about his biography and his experience," he said.
"And it's a very impressive biography and very impressive set of experiences. But time and time again, biography and experience is not enough to win an election. You have to have a vision. You have to connect your policies to the aspirations of the American people. I don't think the campaign did that, and as a result this became a contest between personalities. And you know what? Chicago won that," Jindal said.
