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Jindal Swings at Critics With 'Tanned. Rested. Ready.' Slogan

Gov. Bobby Jindal is striking back at critics accusing him of distancing himself from his heritage with a new slogan, "Tanned. Rested. Ready."
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In announcing his bid for the presidency, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said that he was tired of “all this talk about hyphenated Americans” and that he was “tanned, rested, and ready for this fight.” South Asian Americans have taken Jindal to task for being out of touch with the South Asian American community, and Desi Twitter erupted in response to his remarks, punctuated by comedian Hari Kondabolu’s #BobbyJindalIsSoWhite and comedian Aasif Mandvi’s #Jindian hashtags, critiquing what's seen by some as an attempt by Jindal to distance himself from his Indian-American heritage.

A few days later, Jindal’s campaign released a limited edition t-shirt featuring that slogan, "Tanned. Rested. Ready."

"The liberal media that developed this week was disgusting: Apparently Bobby isn't brown enough for them," wrote Timmy Teepel, Jindal’s campaign manager, in an email to supporters. "Well, this will make the left even more upset."

The Jindal campaign's swing at the "liberal media" only sparked further criticism from South Asian Americans on social media.

Although President Richard Nixon never actually used the slogan in his 1968 campaign for the presidency, the phrase “tanned, fit, and relaxed” came to be associated with Nixon as early as a 1965 New York Times article by John Herbers, bolstered by later remarks by Nixon about how frequent vacations in Florida helped him “keep up the tan,” all to contrast with how pale and exhausted he looked in his 1961 debate with John F. Kennedy, the first televised presidential debates. At the 1988 Young Republican National Convention, the phrase resurfaced as “tanned, rested, and ready” on popular satirical Nixon comeback T-shirts, and have reappeared every few years since.

The Nixon Foundation poked fun at the candidate for failing to source his slogan.

A request for comment by the Jindal campaign went unanswered.