Former NH Gov. Sununu: Romney Has Lock on New Hampshire

Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu says the grappling among Republican presidential candidates over percentage points and positions is a tactic to turn attention away from the fact they’re all trailing Mitt Romney.

Sununu, who supports the front-runner, said this morning on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the election will be a “long slog,” and “New Hampshire is the most important step” in the process. He also predicted that the former Massachusetts governor will win in Tuesday’s first primary election.

“What you’re getting [is the] spin of the losers trying to salvage something out of the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary,” he said.

The Republican Party has several good candidates running for president, he said, and they should be talking about the issues instead of jockeying for position.

“Isn’t it really a representation of people trying to overspin this process that we’re spending all this time talking about how important a small-margin differential might be?” he asked Newt Gingrich supporter Bob Walker, also appearing on the program. “We ought to be talking about issues.”

Walker said Gingrich is talking about the issues, including Romney’s economic plan, the target of a political ad. Gingrich’s ad calls Romney’s plan “timid” and similar to President Barack Obama’s plan.

Walker said the ad is based on a Wall Street Journal editorial.

“Newt Gingrich believes that by going to a zero capital-gains tax, by lowering the corporate tax to 12½ percent, that you will get exactly the investment that we need in this country, and we will produce new jobs,” he said.

Sununu countered, “What America wants to know: Who is going to cut spending?”