“He’s an undervalued stock,” says Jindal adviser Timmy Teepell. “The view of the pundit class in DC, who have not seen Jindal on the stump or interacting with voters, is that he’s an underdog without much of a shot. They take the simplistic approach — ‘the first time I heard of him he gave a bad State of the Union response, so he can’t be any good.’ Fortunately, DC pundits don’t get to decide elections.”…

Jindal’s low ratings are the natural byproduct of his years in the arena, fighting to enact reforms that are not always popular. But once he steps onto the national stage, the theory goes, Jindal will be able to point to a record of real accomplishments.

He’ll do that in the GOP primaries. Those contests, with a big and varied field, are a winnowing process. Candidates who looked good at the start can fade, and candidates who, like Jindal, are far back in the pack get a chance to move up.

Jindal is obviously ambitious (he is just 43, despite the long resume), but he can sometimes come across as wanting it too much. And when he makes a move that looks baldly political, as in his recent turn against Common Core, he only reinforces that impression.