Romney surrogate Sununu says Obama should ‘learn how to be American’

Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, a prominent surrogate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, attacked the Obama campaign on a conference call with reporters earlier today.

During remarks about small business, Sununu said, "I wish this president would learn how to be an American," according to The Washington Post. He later walked the comment back, saying, "What I thought I said but what I didn’t say is the president has to learn the American formula for creating business."

According to The Post, Sununu said on Fox News earlier, "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."

He slammed the Obama campaign for attacking Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, retorting with a statement that Obama "comes out of that murky political world in Chicago where politician and felony has become synonymous," according to ABC News. He added, "I am shocked that the president introduced the word 'felon' into the political discourse."

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On the topic of Romney not releasing his tax returns, Sununu said everyone would know if Romney had not paid his taxes. He was back on the attack, saying, "The Obama campaign has once again demonstrated that they are clearly and unequivocally a bunch of liars," according to ABC News.

Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith responded to the attack in a statement, saying, "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," according to The Los Angeles Times.

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Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a top contender for the vice presidential spot on the Republican ticket, said during an appearance on MSNBC that 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."

Pawlenty added, "Obviously, Gov. Sununu has a knack for colorful language and can be very informative and entertaining," according to Politico.