a star is born

WSJ's Opinion Journal today has a John Fund profile of Louisiana GOP gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants:

The 32-year-old Mr. Jindal had already impressed many in the state's elites with his intelligence and administrative ability. He became the head of the state's health-care system at age 24, director of the Breaux-Thomas national commission on Medicare at 26, president of the University of Louisiana system at 27, and a top adviser on health policy to President Bush at 29.

(Geez. I really am a slacker.) As Orrin Judd is fond of pointing out, election 2004 is turning into a long dark night indeed for Terry McAuliffe.

Also on Opinion Journal is Michael Gonzalez' profile of Oswaldo Payá, the Cuban dissident who would—were there truly justice in the world—today win the Nobel Peace Prize. But as Gonzalez points out, the Nobel committee is more interested in poking their collective finger in President Bush's eye.

UPDATE 10/10/03: I'm a little late on this news, but the Nobel Committee proved me wrong. Although Payá would have been an impressive choice—especially given Castro's brazen crackdown earlier this year—the Prize went to another dissident, the Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi.