Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, a senior Romney surrogate, tells National Review Online that Mitt Romney’s comment to CNN — “I’m not concerned about the very poor” — was unhelpful to the campaign. But he cautions critics to consider the context.
“It was not the best choice of words, but the idea behind it is being misrepresented by others,” says Sununu, a former White House chief of staff.
“There was a context to that, saying, in essence, that we have a safety net for them,” Sununu says. “He was saying that we do not need to change policies for them. Same goes for the super-rich, who are fine. It’s the middle class; they’re the ones we need to be aggressive in helping. They’re the ones who’ve taken the brunt of the bad Obama policies of the past three years.”
Sununu acknowledges, however, that Romney “knows that he needs to be more careful,” especially after his Florida win.
“It’s not what you want to have happened, but you at least hope that your friends out there will frame the proper context for you, so that people will understand what you’ve said,” Sununu says. “And anybody who wants to oppose him will try to feed it into their narrative.”