New Attack from Israel-Challenged Romney Surrogate: Wishing Obama Would Learn How to be an American

NJDC — July 17, 2012 – 3:17 pm | Mitt Romney | Stop the Smears Comments (0) Add a comment

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s surrogate John Sununu, a former White House Chief of Staff and Governor with a questionable Israel record, attacked President Barack Obama’s Americanness during an interview this morning - an attack that Mitt Romney should personally condemn immediately.

According to Buzzfeed:

In a brutal campaign conference call Tuesday organized by Mitt Romney’s campaign, several of the candidate’s surrogates went after President Obama with fiery attacks accusing him of socialism, and being un-American.

‘I wish this president would learn how to be an American,’ said former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu said toward the beginning of the call. Asked later to explain his comment, Sununu said he was referring to Obama’s economic philosophy, and apologized for not being clearer.

Sununu also said that by asserting Romney had committed a felony, the Obama campaign was inviting an investigation into its own ‘Chicago-style’ politics. He concluded the call by calling Obama’s campaign ‘clearly and unequivocally liars.’...

Earlier Tuesday, Sununu made several of the charges in an interview with Fox News, suggesting that his words on the conference call were part of a new Romney campaign effort to turn the focus of the race away from questions about his time at Bain Capitol.

‘He has no idea how the American system functions,’ Sununu told Fox. ‘And we shouldn’t be surprised about that, because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S., he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure, and then got into politics in Chicago.’

According to TPM, Sununu issued a weak clarification of his attack - “without taking back his previous line.” According to TPM:

Sununu tamped that suggestion down later in the call, without taking back his previous line, clarifying that his broader point was that ‘the president has to learn what the American formula for creating business and jobs in America is.’

Asked by a reporter about his initial comment, Sununu said, ‘the American formula for creating business is not to have the government create business,’ but to ‘create a climate in which entrepreneurs could thrive. ... If I didn’t give all that detail, I apologize.’

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain rightly took a firm stance against similar attacks on Obama’s Americanness. Romney, in stark contrast, has consistently remained silent when his supporters attack the President’s character and patriotism. Will Romney continue to remain silent now that one of his official surrogates has gone down this unfortunate road? It is incumbent upon Mitt Romney to immediately and clearly condemn this profoundly disturbing characterization made by a top Romney surrogate.

Click here to learn more about Sununu and his relationship to Romney’s campaign.

Click here to read what NYT columnist wrote about Sununu in 1991. 

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