The bureaucratic incompetence which Bobby Jindal vilified, in his knee-jerk Republican response to a powerful speech by Barack Obama, occurred, in fact, during a Republican president.

The boats were all lined up ready to go — when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, ‘Sheriff, that’s ridiculous.’ And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: ‘Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!’ Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens.

George W. Bush packed the Federal Emergency Management Administration with political appointees, instead of — ironically — career bureaucrats (i.e., disaster response professionals) whose knowledge about how to properly stage a response to a hurricane was ignored by people like Michael Brown — appointees whose only claim to their offices in a disaster agency was how much campaign money they raised for Bush.

Actually, (aside from the dubious veracity of the story) there’s a hidden lesson which Bobby Jindal would rather we forget: When compassionate hearts and enterprising spirits aren’t enough, competent government is essential.

In fact, the examples Jindal supplied of America’s ability to overcome great challenges all demanded an enormous government response:

Don’t let anyone tell you that we cannot recover — or that America’s best days are behind her.

This is the nation that cast off the scourge of slavery, overcame the Great Depression, prevailed in two World Wars, won the struggle for civil rights, defeated the Soviet menace, and responded with determined courage to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Does Bobby Jindal think he’s too smart for his britches?

Whatever his intelligence — and that can be questioned — he certainly isn’t a contender.

Barack Obama strode into House chambers with savvy and confidence, and delivered a bold agenda with a comfortable, even humorous, tongue-in-cheek jab at his critics.

Bobby Jindal did the arms-frozen “Jindal-walk” to a podium, and with the artifice of a plastered-smile, read a stale partisan speech in an annoying, pandering style more befitting of pupil trying to earn the adoring praise of a fifth-grade teacher. Jindal just doesn’t have the stuff of broad appeal. He’s a nerd — and not a very good one, as judged by his logical non sequiturs.

Related: For more local reaction to Jindal’s speech, read YRHT, and The Daily Kingfish.