AP Boosts Jindal, Despite Facts

I see the Associated Press continues to relish in its role as Republican propagada machine, with a fluff piece titled Anti-tax stance boosts Jindal despite budget woes.  But who is Jindal's anti-tax stance giving him a boost with?  The article never says.  While the article isn't a total fluff piece, the main gist is that he's really moving ahead, yet fails to say with whom.
It cites his high approval ratings in Louisiana, but those were already high; and are now a little lower than they were last year.  And if that were the case, you'd think the article might have mentioned his actual approval ratings; highlighting how they're now higher because of his anti-tax stance.  But no, many assertions of high approval, but nary a number in sight.  And after fifteen minutes of searching, the best I could find is an article which mentions him having 63% approval rating; though it fails to cite the source for that claim. 

The AP article even suggests that Obama's approval rating of 56% is a "dip"; yet that's only eight points lower than Jindal's rating.  And Obama's approval rating is national, while Jindal's is only for his home state; which is overwhelmingly conservative.  Yet the AP posits this as if this bodes well for Jindal, because he's remaining popular in his state, while Obama's popularity also remains steady.

But perhaps they're talking about a boost with Republicans.  And if they are, you'd think they'd include some sort of statistic to back up that claim.  But again, nothing.  And the latest poll of national Republicans I found showed that only 1% of them would vote for Jindal in a Republican primary; less than the 2% Newt Gingrich received.  Well, that wasn't the latest poll of Republicans, but merely the latest that included Jindal.  A more recent poll in January only included Palin, Romney, Gingrich, and "a candidate from the Tea Party movement."  To Fox News, who conducted the poll, Jindal was less mentionable than a generic candidate from an imaginary movement.  Ouch.

So basically, a half-term governor with no accomplishments, low national recognition, and a looming budget fiasco is getting a "boost," based on his anti-tax policy which deserves partial blame for the budget fiasco.  Brilliant work, AP.  At a time when your profession is becoming increasingly irrelevant, you stick with fluffy analysis pieces that any blogger could have tossed out; assuming they didn't like doing research or including facts.  And if this article has any influence, it'd be to give Jindal the boost that it asserted he already had.  I suspect that this was the point.