Opinion: Bobby Jindal makes a prediction: He won’t be the GOP veep pick

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Has Bobby Jindal removed himself from vice presidential speculation?

That’s how Fox News interpreted a comment from the Louisiana governor today. During an interview on ‘Fox & Friends,’ the 37-year-old Republican said, ‘I’m not going to be the vice presidential nominee or vice president.’

That’s not quite as sweeping and uncategorical as the ‘don’t ask me, I won’t take the job’ statements that Democrats Ted Strickland, the governor of Ohio, and Jim Webb, the senator from Virginia, have issued.

Still, Jindal’s comment is pretty blunt for someone who has been viewed as right at the top of John McCain’s list of potential running mates.

McCain was scheduled to travel to New Orleans today for a sit-down with Jindal but, intriguingly, the meeting was canceled this afternoon. However, that may have had more to do with matters outside either man’s control.

As The Ticket noted earlier, Hurricane Dolly already accomplished what no amount of carping from McCain could -- cut into the intensive coverage of Barack Obama’s overseas sojourn. But storms play no favorites, and McCain has been directly affected by it.

Thursday morning, McCain planned to helicopter to an oil rig along the Gulf Coast to reiterate his recent call for an end to the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, a speech partially designed to try to steal some thunder from Obama’s scheduled address in Germany. But citing concerns about the turbulence in the Gulf region caused by Dolly, the event got scotched along with the Jindal chat.

McCain instead will travel to Columbus, Ohio, to join famed bicyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong for a town hall meeting devoted to discussing the disease and the efforts to fight it. McCain has suffered from skin cancer, including a serious case in 2000.

-- Don Frederick