Romneyland now has surrogates doing surrogate damage control

Romneyland is getting better at this damage control thing. Almost.

After top campaign surrogate John Sununu spent the morning calling President Obama a stoner socialist who needs to "learn how to be an American," they dispatched former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to clean up Sununu's mess.

But instead of simply cleaning up the mess, Pawlenty decided to praise Sununu ... for supposedly having cleaned up the mess himself.

Governor Sununu made those comments earlier today. He then clarified and walked back those statements by saying he meant that President Obama doesn't really have a familiarity with what it means to be in the American entrepreneurial and private enterprise system, early stage capital formation deployment and comments to that effect. So I think he clarified it, and obviously Governor Sununu has a knack for colorful language, and can be very informative and entertaining. This one he, you know, admitted perhaps he wasn't as clear as he should have been, and issued a clarification and I think that was appropriate under the circumstances.

To refresh your memory, here's the specific remark Pawlenty was talking about:

I wish this president would learn how to be an American.

I'm not sure what wasn't clear about that, especially given that Sununu had earlier claimed that President Obama didn't come to the United States before moving to Chicago in his adulthood, but I'll give Pawlenty this: Sununu is entertaining. Just not in a good way for Romneyland.