Political Hotsheet
By

Rebecca Kaplan /

CBS News/ July 17, 2012, 2:36 PM

Sununu calls Obama un-American, then backtracks

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney listens as former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu endorses him for President outside the Statehouse October 24, 2011 in Concord, New Hampshire.

/ Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Updated at 6:00 p.m. ET

(CBS News) One of GOP candidate Mitt Romney's top surrogates, John Sununu, said on Tuesday that he wished "this president would learn how to be an American," before stating he had misspoke during a conference call organized by the campaign designed to cast the president as a corrupt politician who is out of touch with small businesses.

Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor and chief of staff to George H.W. Bush who is known for his brash speaking style, was forced to backtrack.

"What I thought I said, but I guess I didn't say, is that the president has to learn the American formula for creating business. The American formula for creating business is not to have government create business. The American formula for creating business, that I wish he would get comfortable with, is to create a climate in which entrepreneurs can thrive. If I didn't give all of that detail I apologize," he said.

Later Tuesday, Sununu apologized in an interview with CNN. "I made a mistake. I shouldn't have used those words. And I apologize for using those words," he said.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith was quick to respond to Sununu's original comment. "The Romney campaign has officially gone off the deep end. The question is what else they'll pull to avoid answering serious questions about Romney's tenure at Bain Capital and investments in foreign tax havens and offshore accounts. This meltdown and over-the-top rhetoric won't make things better- it only calls attention to how desperate they are to change the conversation."

Sununu also tried to paint Obama as a corrupt politician by casting his background as "that murky political world in Chicago where politician and felon has become synonymous." He said the president opened himself up to the charge when his camp suggested Romney misrepresented his position at Bain Capital to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The Obama campaign has once again demonstrated that they are clearly and unequivocally a bunch of liars," Sununu said of Obama campaign ads raising questions about why Romney has not released his tax returns.

The call featured four small business owners criticizing Obama for his remarks during a campaign stop in Roanoke, Va., last week when he told successful business owners, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Obama was discussing the role of government in business development.

The men and women on the call took umbrage at Obama's remarks, which Sununu also called "insulting." Renee Amoore, a black businesswoman from Pennsylvania, said of the president, "I've been black a long time and he won't get my vote."

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
53 Comments Add a Comment
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TStewartIII3 says:
NewsBusters: Business Owners Bash Obama During Conference Call, but Media Only Interested in Sununu Apology, Romney Records
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/randy-hall/2012/07/20/business-owners-bash-obama-during-conference-call-media-only-interested-
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nygurl1 replies:
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Hand-picked business owners too.
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uscollins says:
I want to thank Marxists like our President. Without men like you I would have never joined the military as an anti-communist, accepted a job as an intelligence interrogator during the Cold War, directly participated in Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign, volunteered to fight in Iraq after 911, and chose to labor in the business sector doing what I love instead of suckling off the welfare state. And I want to further thank the guy in the red nova for swerving at the last second when I was riding my skateboard on Cunningham drive. Without him I would not be successful in business. So thank you red nova man! Thank you for everything. Oh and thank the inventor of asphalt and brake pads...and ball bearings too. And thank the monkey man who discovered fire and the big bang initiator who I call God. Hmmm, I guess in the end I need only to thank my Creator.
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nygurl1 replies:
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What have you been drinking, injecting, smoking.....?
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ubroc says:
Sununu would have benefited from getting "the talk" from Dean Wormer:

"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."
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lg144 says:
John Sununu was born in Havana, Cuba and this clown has the nerve to say our President is unamerican. What a stupid old fool that bloviating idiot is. Romney and the republican party don't undeserving of public office. Release your tax returns Romney!
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lg144 replies:
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What a phony request, do you also want the president to show you his birth certificate again? Get real!
nygurl1 replies:
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Barry - you are lying! Look it up if you really care. His marks are NOYB! And most schools will not release marks to anyone, not even the student! He doesn't have to pay for anything!

Ever hear of scholarships? Didn't think so.
Ever finish high school Barry? What were your marks?

Stories have mentioned honors so he is not anywhere near as stupid as you sound!
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tvwatcher5345 says:
i used to live next door to sununu before he moved to NH, i never thought of the name "sununu" as a very American name
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nygurl1 replies:
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WHAT is an AMERICAN name? Chief Bearcoat???
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33maxwell says:
Sununu is a fat drunken idiot..


Oh.. did I say that?

I'm sorry..
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Mainer23 says:
"If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Obama was discussing the role of government in business development. Really????? wow President is way out of touch with how business works I would say.....!!
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getcentered replies:
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Don't miss the point Obama was making with that comment. He in his larger statement, is describing how we are all part of a community. How every opportunity we have is born of the work of many people. The roads and bridges, the tax payer subsidized gasoline, the firemen and police who help us to have an environment that breeds ideas and success.

You can't just chop out the words Obama says that you like and keep the stuff you use to make yourself angry. Respect for once in your life, the nuances and complexities of our government. It is those nuances and complexities that make our country so awesome!
lg144 replies:
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by Barry-been-inhalin July 17, 2012 9:55 PM EDT
Excuse me if you read the context its much worse than the little snipets. He basically says the more successful you become the more you owe to the government.
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So you think our government plays no part in a individual's success here? Take any successful American business from here to Somalia and see how successful it is,genius.
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buyerboycott says:
Tricky Mitt:" Are they still asking me about my tax returns?"
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getcentered says:
So what? The only thing Republicans know how to do is talk trash. Just look at any comment section of a news site.

Rush Limba spewed this tired tragedian rhetoric to his millions of loyal lackey followers, July 16, 2012:

"I think it can now be said, without equivocation -without equivocation - that this man hates this country ... Barack Obama is trying to dismantle, brick by brick, the American dream. There's no other way to put this. There's no other way to explain this. He was indoctrinated as a child. His father was a communist. His mother was a leftist. He was sent to prep and Ivy League schools where his contempt for the country was reinforced. He moved to Chicago. It was the home of the radical-left movement. He hooks up to Ayers and Dohrn and Rashid Khalidi. He learns the ruthlessness of Cook County politics. This is what we have as a president: A radical ideologue, a ruthless politician who despises the country and the way it was founded and the way in which it became great."


It's as Mark Twain wrote, "Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?"

Republicans aren't going for logical and reasonable, they are going for stupid.

See the bigger picture here is that the Romney campaign and Republicans in general, have no policy positions to offer other than that of the tired rhetoric that, "tax cuts and deregulation" are the answer to the problems with our economy.

It's obvious by now that cutting taxes for the rich did not create jobs and the war in Iraq was a huge unnecessary burden on the US tax payer.

From 2000 to 2007, the United States lost one in five (3.5 million) middle-class jobs. A majority of the new jobs created in the United States under Bush pay extremely low wages at less than $18,000 a year, usually without benefits. This is with corporate profits at an all time high since 1960. The 2005 CBO data show that changes in law enacted since January 2001 increased the deficit by $539 billion in 2005. In the absence of such legislation, the nation would have a surplus that year. In 2010, when all the Bush tax cuts were finally phased in, a staggering 52.5 percent of the benefits went to the richest 5 percent of taxpayers.

President Bush and his supporters argued that high-income tax cuts would benefit everybody because they would unleash investment that would spark widespread economic prosperity.

Never happened.

What about the endless sloganeering against "regulations" by the Republican Party? Republicans like to call regulations "job killing". I admit the phrase is heart breaking and disparagingly clever, but the fact of the matter is that regulations create jobs and ultimately support the general welfare of all the people of our country.

Look at it this way: If you have Social Security, Medicare, the right to vote, the right to an education, a clean park or a lake near you or an FDIC insured place to put your money. If you were given a disability check or a wheel chair ramp into the store you buy your food, if you like safe bridges, clean drinking water, clean air and a nontoxic environment, if you feel safe when you fly, or eat out, or give your child a toy, then it's time you give liberals and "regulations" the credit they deserve.
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getcentered replies:
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jean i think you miss the point Obama was making with that comment. He in his larger statement, is describing how we are all part of a community. How every opportunity we have is born of the work of many people. The roads and bridges, the tax payer subsidized gasoline, the firemen and police who help us to have an environment that breeds ideas and success.

You can't just chop out the words Obama says that you like and keep the stuff you use to make yourself angry. Listen for once for the nuances and complexities of our government. It is those nuances and complexities that make our country so awesome!
nygurl1 replies:
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Gee - that's exactly the words we used from the beginning to describe reps!
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Rom-No says:
john Sununu is back from the dead, and proving once again to be one of the most repulsive figures in American politics. Please tell me what is more un-American than hiding your money in a bunch of off-shore accounts in the Cayman Islands or Bermuda or bragging about how little taxes you pay? The Republicans have truly reached a nadir. But just wait until Romney finally releases his tax returns and we reach yet another new low.

Mittens is toast.
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