John SuNoNo

I learned today that Mitt Romney and his surrogates have stooped to a new low.

Specifically, John SuNoNo, ur, Sununu, former New Hampshire governor and George H.W. Bush's White House Chief of Staff was sent out to tell America, he wished President Obama "would learn how to be an American."

In addition, Sununu said:

"He has no idea how the American system functions. 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, 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. There has been no experience in his life in which he's earned a private sector pay check that meant anything."

In what has been an all too common occurrence in this campaign, Sununu's statement was quickly followed by the "walk-back", broadcast on CNN.

"Frankly, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have used those words. And I apologize for using those words but I don't apologize for the idea that this president has demonstrated that he does not understand how jobs are created in America." 

Republicans like Sununu, calling him a campaign asset because he's pugnacious and has no fear. But claiming Obama was "wallowing with felons in Chicago" or that he demonizes the rich, even saying the word with a "snarl" is over the top. 

In my opinion, Sununu pulled a No-No.

In a possible tryout for the VP nod, the Romney team trotted out former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty to try to cool things off. Pawlenty, on MSNBC said, Sununu "clarified and walked back his statements by saying he meant that President Obama really doesn't have a familiarity with what it means to be in the American entrepreneurial and private enterprise system. So I think he clarified it." Pawlenty continued, "Obviously, Gov. Sununu has a knack for colorful language and can be very informative and entertaining."

So, in cooling things down, Pawlenty also basically said that Obama doesn't understand an aspect of America. Both were using right wing code for the contention that the president is foreign and "not like us"; even, possibly, another small reminder of the birther issue. 

Sununu's language was not colorful, it was unacceptable. And Pawlenty, in his defense, said the same thing, albeit blandly. Has this ever been done to a sitting president before? Not in my memory. Republicans and the Romney campaign are fueled by the tirades of Limbaugh and Fox News and they should be ashamed of themselves.

By the way, just one more thing about presidents and the American private enterprise system. Presidents have come from a multitude of backgrounds. Many were lawyers, some were in the military and many spent much of their career in politics, with family money and/or business ventures on the side or in between their political posts. But the two who really could claim business credentials, and by virtue of that would seem to have the best "familiarity with what it means to be in the American entrepreneurial and private enterprise system", were Herbert Hoover (made a small fortune as a mining executive) and George W. Bush (the first "MBA" president). Let's see, remind me again how their tenures worked out.