Washington, July 1
Stung by media criticism
that he is distancing himself from his Indian heritage, Bobby Jindal's
presidential campaign is hitting hard on his 'hyphenated Americans'
theme with T-shirts touting him as "tanned, rested, ready".
The
$20 official T-shirt which is supposed to be a nod to Jindal's Indian
heritage and his dislike of "hyphenated American" modifiers as well as a
play on a famous Richard Nixon line, is apparently his way of getting
back at the "liberal media."
Way back in 1988, a T-shirt sold at
the Young Republican convention in Seattle depicted "a smiling Richard
M. Nixon" with the slogan "He's tan, rested and ready," according to the
New York Times.
"The liberal media said, 'There's not much
Indian left in Bobby Jindal,' so we made shirts to mock them," Jindal,
the first Indian-American governor and the 13th Republican candidate in
the 2016 White House race, tweeted Tuesday.
The line is an
apparent reference to a quote from Pearson Cross, a political science
professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who is writing a
book on him, in a Washington Post profile of Jindal.
"The liberal narrative that developed this week was disgusting:
apparently Bobby isn't brown enough for them," said Jindal campaign manager Timmy Teepell as cited by The Advocate newspaper.
Jindal's
presidential super PAC - a supposedly independent political action
committee that may raise unlimited sums of money and engage in unlimited
political spending independently of a campaign-also criticised
"hyphenated Americans."
The first television advertisement
released by "Believe Again" PAC in Iowa, the state from where
presidential campaigns of both parties traditionally begin, uses clips
of Jindal's campaign launch suggesting that the use of "hyphenated
Americans" is divisive.
"I'm done with all this talk about
hyphenated Americans. We are not Indian-Americans, Irish-Americans,
African-Americans, rich Americans, or poor Americans - we are all
Americans," Jindal says in the "We are All Americans" ad.
Jindal
is returning to Iowa this week to hold various events through Saturday,
including participating in at least two July 4 parades and tours of
local factories.
Meanwhile, Twitter went wild Tuesday asking
Bobby Jindal questions with the #AskBobby hashtag after his political
action committee encouraged people to ask the presidential candidate
questions.
The hashtag, which is used to track trending topics,
quickly became among the top 10-most used topics on the service by
Tuesday afternoon, according to NOLA.com.
But going by a sampling, apparently this was not what the Jindal campaign was hoping for.
Ben
Moser @benjaminmoser Can you tell me the difference between Obama's
"illegal executive orders" and your "totes legit executive orders?"
#AskBobby
LoveWins @word_34 - #AskBobby Would you consider this the first sign of the apocalypse or the second sign?
NonProphetess
@nonprophetess - Is the cognitive dissonance of having a biology degree
and being viciously anti-science overwhelming?
Brent Rogers @BrntRgrs - Who is your favorite Supreme Court justice? I'm guessing Scalia. Did I get it right? #AskBobby.
Scalia
was one of the judges who gave a dissenting opinion in the Supreme
Court ruling allowing same-sex marriages across the US.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])
