In a conference call with reporters arranged by Mitt Romney's campaign, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu strayed from campaign-approved talking points: "I wish this president would learn how to be an American." Whoops. We think Sununu, one of Romney's most aggressive surrogates, meant to suggest President Obama was a little bit socialist, but he drifted into what sounded like birther territory. Sununu corrected himself to say Obama "has to learn the American formula for creating businesses." There hasn't been any official response from the Romney campagn, though The Daily Beast's lapsed Republican David Frum suggested a better clarification might be, "I have to stop doing these calls shit-faced drunk."

Sununu (pictured with Romney above) riffed more successfully on the subject on Fox News Tuesday morning, when he merely suggested Obama's economic views were skewed by his drug use and foreign travel. Sununu explained, "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, another 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."

Of course, those familiar with Obama's teenage "Choom Gang" years know they came after the Indonesia years, not before.

Update: Obama's campaign responded to Sununu's comments, saying, "The Romney campaign has officially gone off the deep end."

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Elspeth Reeve