Bill Clinton’s decision to nominate Barack Obama to a second term in the White House is really a way to set up his wife, Hillary, for a 2016 run at the White House, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu tells Newsmax.
Clinton, he says in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, knows exactly what he is doing with his Wednesday speech to the Democratic National Convention, and knows how it will boost Hillary’s chances.
“This becomes a no-lose situation for the Clintons,” said Sununu who was chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush. “If Obama wins, he gets credit for having made that victory and if Obama loses, Hillary is well positioned for 2016.”
Sununu said Clinton is “really not a fan” of Obama and is only making the speech – one of the most anticipated of the convention – to help his wife in four years’ time. “Bill Clinton is smart enough to have that all figured out,” he said.
Sununu, who served three two-year terms as governor during the 1980s got to know Clinton well through their work on the National Governors Association – “He was chairman of the National Governors when I was the vice-chairman. I became chairman the next year and we continued to work together as he chaired the executive committee.
“Clinton is a clever guy politically,” he said of the former Arkansas governor.
Story continues below the video.
But Sununu, now chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, said that attribute does not spread to the current Democratic leadership and they have proved it by removing the words “God-given” from their presidential platform.
“I cannot imagine what possessed them to remove any reference to God in there. I mean is there really a huge atheist vote they’re going after in America? It doesn’t make any sense.
“I just suggest to people that it points out that there’s really a lack of smarts at the top of this Democratic Party and why would you want anyone dumb enough to strike God from their platform to be running the country again?”
He also pointed out that Obama is the only president in modern times not to have produced a budget. “A president is supposed to lead the charge to get a budget,” he said. “You need a budget, every family knows that that’s fiscally responsible. You’ve got to assess how much is coming in and you decide what’s going out on the basis of what’s coming in.
“There is no president that ever did not have a budget other than Barack Obama, and the one budget he did send down got a 414 to nothing vote in the House and 97 to nothing in the Senate. It says two things: one, he’s fiscally irresponsible and, two, if you can’t lead one of your own party to vote for you, you have no leadership capacity.
“The other is the fact that this president doesn’t know how to count,” Sununu added. “He keeps telling us that he hasn’t increased spending. Now, what really bothers me is he may believe that and if you’re that delusional about spending in the White House, you really don’t deserve a second term.”
Sununu also said he does not believe the Democrats’ explanation that Obama’s Thursday speech to the convention has been moved indoors to a far smaller venue because of the weather.
“The last time he did a speech in a stadium, two thirds of the stadium was empty. So they had been trying to bus some parishes in from South Carolina and trying to round up students on campuses and some say even resorting to handing tickets out on the street corners.
“But I guess there were no takers and so they went indoors.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.