Here is part of a very interesting article by William Kristol that appears in the New York Times today. In it, Kristol reveals that no less than four McCain staffers in the last week mentioned Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana as a possible McCain Vice-Presidential running mate. Kristol is often spot on in what he is hearing and sensing, as when he correctly predicted Mitt Romney would end his presidential bid and endorse John McCain on Thursday, March 6, after the Tuesday, March 4, Super Tuesday primaries.

I fundamentally disagree with why they seem to think Jindal may need to be the choice, but I do believe he would be an excellent pick. Both Kristol and the McCain staffers appear to fear that Obama will be such a strong nominee that McCain must pick someone "outside the box" to be able to compete with him. I do not think Obama will be strong, but I do think Jindal would be an exciting choice:

Still, Obama is the likely Democratic nominee. Some conservatives are giddy at the thought — kidding themselves that the general election will therefore be easy, that Obama will be another Dukakis. I was struck, though, in several conversations this week with McCain campaign staffers and advisers that they’re pretty sober about the task ahead. About the Dukakis analogy, for example, one McCain aide said: If in 1988 Ronald Reagan had had a 30 percent job approval rating, and 80 percent of the voters had thought we were on the wrong track, Dukakis would have won.

And the McCain campaign knows the environment for Republicans remains toxic. They noticed that on Saturday night Republicans lost their second House seat in a special election in two months — this one in a district they had held since 1974 and that Bush had carried by almost 20 points in 2004.

Another McCain staffer called my attention to this finding in the latest Fox News poll: McCain led Obama in the straight match-up, 46 to 43. Voters were then asked to choose between two tickets, McCain-Romney vs. Obama-Clinton. Obama-Clinton won 47 to 41.

That reversal of a three-point McCain lead to a six-point deficit for the McCain ticket suggests what might happen (a) when the Democrats unite, and (b) if McCain were to choose a conventional running mate, who, as it were, reinforced the Republican brand for the ticket. As the McCain aide put it, this is what will happen if we run a traditional campaign; our numbers will gradually regress toward the (losing) generic Republican number.

Maybe that’s why, in separate conversations last week, no fewer than four McCain staffers and advisers mentioned as a possible vice-presidential pick the 36-year-old Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal. They’re tempted by the idea of picking someone so young, with real accomplishments and a strong reformist streak.

It might also be a way to confront the issue of McCain’s age (71), which private polls and focus groups suggest could be a real problem. A Jindal pick would implicitly acknowledge the questions and raise the ante. The message would be: “You want generational change? You can get it with McCain-Jindal — without risking a liberal and inexperienced Obama as commander in chief.” I would add that it was after McCain spent considerable time with Jindal in New Orleans recently, and reportedly found him, as he has before, personally engaging and intellectually impressive, that the campaign’s informal name-dropping of Jindal began.

Of course, we shouldn’t assume that the Democratic nominee will be Obama. Maybe Clinton will win both Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday. If she does, she’ll have a chance — an outside chance, but a chance — to win the nomination. And if that happens, the reason will have been that Obama allowed his own running mate in the primaries to become Reverend Jeremiah Wright.