Can Jindal prove he matters?

It’s a big weekend for Bobby Jindal, but can he seize the moment?

The Louisiana governor is the featured evening speaker Friday at the Redstate gathering in New Orleans and then sets off to Iowa on Saturday for a fundraiser on behalf of Gov. Terry Branstad.

For almost any potential top-tier 2016er, this back-to-back premiere event scheduling would attract gobs of media attention and piles of aftermath analysis.

But for Jindal, it’ll likely produce no more than a few headlines out of his battered home state press corps.

When he jetted up to New Hampshire in May, the Union-Leader didn’t even tease his visit on the front page.  The Granite State Democratic Party chairman openly mocked his draw.  And he’s placed at the bottom of virtually every GOP primary poll taken this year.

The 42-year-old Jindal is a second-tier GOP candidate at best.  He’s said anyone thinking about 2016 this early should have their head examined.

But the more salient question might be what kind of plan he has in his own head to propel himself into the 2016 conversation.

He may be saying it is too early to contemplate 2016, but Jindal’s too smart a pol to deny that even this embryonic stage can be consequential.  Anyone who doesn’t think so is ignoring the rapid rise of Rand Paul in a mere seven months.

This would appear to be a prime weekend for Jindal to make news.  But it won’t be easy.

The first red flags: Two speakers in front of him at Redstate could easily spur more interest.  Near the noon hour, Matt Bevin, the Kentucky tea party Senate candidate challenging Mitch McConnell addresses attendees.  Then it’s Sen. Ted Cruz — who has consistently vacuumed up Washington media attention even before he was sworn in.

Journalists will be watching if Bevin has the gravitas and chops to go toe to toe with McConnell.  They’ll be reading Cruz for whether he’s toning down his rhetoric after a week in which he was accused of painting his GOP colleagues as cowardly lemmings.  Jindal needs a robust, fresh speech — and not recycled lines about “the stupid party,” which he first uttered last fall.

Saturday’s event in Iowa doesn’t appear open to press.  But Jindal’s team could easily make some news in the Hawkeye State, either through an interview with the Des Moines Register or a staged photo opportunity or media availability.

Of course, it’s more likely they’ll choose not to.  And perhaps that’s all part of the lay-low strategic plan.

But as a familiar second-term governor who is wallowing in the low single digits in early primary polling — 1 percent in Iowa, 2 percent in New Hampshire — the smarter play for Jindal would be to harness his intellectual capacity and political chutzpah and seize the moment.

With Rick Perry on his way out of office, Chris Christie and Scott Walker on their way to reelection and Rand, Ted and Marco all commanding continuous coverage of their Washington ways, there’s no time to waste for Bobby Jindal.

Even if that means having his own head examined.