Fox host Martha MacCallum teamed up with Republican John Sununu to blow the birther dog whistle about President Obama’s upcoming trip to Kenya.
At about the 2:50 mark in an interview that was mostly criticism about Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran, MacCallum invited George H.W. Bush’s former chief of staff to attack Obama for visiting Africa too much.
MACCALLUM: It was just announced moments ago that the president will travel to Kenya in July. This is going to be his fourth trip to Africa in the course of his presidency. What do you think?
A truly fair and balanced host, or even a merely professional one, would have pointed out some of the reasons Obama is going there, rather than toss the question to a Republican operative with only the “fourth trip” as a reference. For example, Africa is a region with 1.3 billion potential customers for American goods, and a continent with bases that play a role in counterterrorism operations. CNN noted that Obama is going for “bilateral meetings and the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, an annual conference that connects entrepreneurs with business leaders, international organizations, and governments.”
But even so, MacCallum apparently got more than she bargained for from Sununu.
SUNUNU (chuckling): “Well, look, he’s going to take advantage in the last two years and go to all the place he wants to go to. I think his trip back to Kenya’s going to create a lot of chatter and commentary amongst some of the hard right who still don’t see him as having been born in the U.S. I personally think he’s just inciting some chatter on an issue that should have been a dead issue a long time ago.
Instead of dismissing the birtherism or Sununu's outrageous suggestion that Obama is somehow to blame for any revival of it, MacCallum piled on, albeit via a subtler dog whistle.
MACCALLUM: Well, maybe the most important thing is what your priorities are in terms of where the hotspots are in the world and what really needs to be addressed and whether or not Kenya is on that list.
Sununu went for that. “Well, I think the hot spot today is these negotiations in Iran (they’re actually in Switzerland, but MacCallum didn’t correct Sununu) and the battling in Yemen and Syria,” Sununu said. “And I hope the president is paying attention there.”
Watch these two suggest our president is just too concerned about Africa (wink, wink) below, from today's America's Newsroom.
Only amongst the stupid, John.
BTW, would you be one of those “hard right” who don’t see him as having been born in the US? It would be understandable — considering YOU weren’t born in the US . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H.Sununu#Earlylife
MACCALLUM: Well, maybe the most important thing is what your priorities are in terms of where the hotspots are in the world and what really needs to be addressed and whether or not Kenya is on that list.
Sununu went for that. “Well, I think the hot spot today is these negotiations in Iran (they’re actually in Switzerland, but MacCallum didn’t correct Sununu) and the battling in Yemen and Syria,” Sununu said. “And I hope the president is paying attention there.”
Not to worry, Mad Martha and Havana John . . .
You see, unlike both his predecessor and his predecessor’s father (whom Sununu worked for until he had to quit after taking numerous personal trips at taxpayer expense), President Obama is capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time — that is, he can concentrate on more than one thing.
I know that’s a shock to both of you that a black man is actually capable of doing so; you’d be amazed at what you can learn if you leave the Fox bubble . . .
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And, let’s not forget, he basically pled that his family’s finances were in somewhat dire straits and then turned around and spent more than $5,000 on rare stamps. Oh. That little trip was pretty much a road trip, using a government limousine from DC to NYC (the stamps were part of an auction at Christie’s)—and then he sent the limo and driver back while he took a corporate jet home.
You know. This guy really has ZERO business attacking Obama on anything. Especially when he was born in Cuba; his dad was a US citizen, of Palestinian heritage but his mother was born and raised in El Salvador. AND because he was forced to resign as Chief of Staff, largely because of his shady doings on the taxpayer’s dime.
