Romney campaign surrogate and former New Hampshire governor John Sununu just doesn't understand all this talk about a fracture within the Republican Party. Talking to BuzzFeed about Ron Paul's frustrated supporters, Sununu said, "I think they're going to vote the right way in November."
This, of course, ignores the fracas caused yesterday when some of Maine's Ron Paul-supporting delegates were escorted out of the convention hall's balcony after shouting "Seat Maine now!" and other slogans. RNC rules kept these particular delegates from sitting on the convention floor. They were instead relegated to that balcony where they staged their vocal protest.
In the video above, delegates supporting Ron Paul can be heard saying, "Shame on them!" and "This convention is a farce!" Things then got really testy in the arena's hallway with each side shouting their candidate's name over the other.
John Sununu's inability to acknowledge this Ron Paul insurgency within the GOP's ranks is interesting when you realize he's one of the guys behind the scenes making these rules that keep these Ron Paul-supporting delegates from being seated on the floor. BuzzFeed explains:
None of this fazed Sununu, who in his capacity as Rules Committee chairman has been the bane of the Paul delegates' experience at the convention...
"Politics is the art of putting people together," Sununu said. "You try to get everybody involved, sometimes you succeed and sometimes you don't."
"I feel that in the long run, there's enough dissatisfaction with President Obama that you'll find that the party truly is unified," Sununu said. "That it's going to leave Tampa as a strong party, and although you may always find one or two people who disagree, I think everyone's going to come together to defeat President Obama in November."
Maine's national committeewoman Ashley Ryan, a supporter of Rep. Paul, told BuzzFeed that Sununu was "very saracastic" and "demeaning"
Responding to the riff, one RNC delegate from Colorado told the Associated Press, "If you're trying to win a presidential campaign and put on a show, you shouldn't poke a sharp stick in the eye of conservative activists. That's what happened."
