Talk:John H. Sununu

IQ

"John H. Sununu is widely viewed as one of the most intelligent politicians in the U.S. He had the absolutely highest score in the intelligence "Mega Test"."

Im sure the author is just trying to say that this guy is considered to be a smart and together sort of chap, but this phrasing makes it all sound like it was a bit tacked on. The "Mega Test" bit almost sounds like a bit of a joke, I'm afraid. Perhaps this bit would best be removed: if the senior Sununu is an intelligent man who was respected as such by his peers, then that's enough say I think. Dxco 17:28, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Removed

The "Mega Test" line is one that should have some references. Online, there was only a smattering of pages referring to the "Mega Test" and Sununu. It looks like this is as close as the "Mega Test" line gets, and I think a little more than this is needed. JFHJr (JFHJr) 08:36, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

I remember when Omni magazine ran a High IQ test and Sununu submitted his answers - all correct - and thanked them for the fun challenge. Omni reported his IQ was in the top .5%, or something like that, yet much higher than the 2% for Mensa. I forget if they called it Mega Test. 173.71.213.33 (talk) 15:40, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Found a reference from a somewhat snobby article from the Washington Post (of course) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/04/28/what-sununu-knew-as-he-flew/d9b9659a-e8c6-4281-8281-7ac532510e93/

The originator of the Omni test was created by a founder of the Mega Society. Hence the Mega Test reference. 173.71.213.33 (talk) 15:44, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Define "Harsh"

The author defines Sununu's style as "harsh" and calls him an "enforcer". Some examples or elaboration would help to support this designation, thus maintaining a neutral point of view. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.189.145.106 (talk) 09:17, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

UN Resolution

Just saying "it's true" is not a valid citation. You need to provide support for this claim, or it needs to stay out. F. Thomas 03:15, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I really wouldn't know how you could find it on Google (and I'm not sure that your ability to find it on Google is a valid test of anything), but I remember it from media coverage at the time -- from the early 80's on his original decision, and again from the late 80's on reaction to his administration appointment ("Jewish groups decide they have no problem with Sununu appointment" type coverage). AnonMoos 05:43, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

By the way, your Googling skills must really suck, because I put in zionism racism sununu as a Google search, and got back http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956398-2,00.html as the second result. AnonMoos 18:13, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Lebanese or Palestinian

I don't know which is right, but someone should find a reputable source, rather than having a slow-motion edit war between unsupported assertions... AnonMoos (talk) 01:35, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Check this: He is Palestinian

"I was definitely the only person in my class with a Palestinian-American father, who was born in Havana and grew up in New York City"

http://www.americantaskforce.org/remarks_senator_john_sununu_atfp_inaugural_gala — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.232.30.140 (talk) 14:27, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

His father belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem. This does not mean he is Greek, he is a Palestinian Christian the majority of which follow Eastern orthodox churches!! -- Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.232.30.140 (talk) 22:52, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

He is Palestinian [1]. 71.232.30.140 (talk) 23:06, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Someone changed it back to "Lebanese" sometime in the past year and a half... AnonMoos (talk) 15:27, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

Dismissal

lol: "At the recommendation of George W. Bush, he resigned..."

Do we have to be so comically euphemistic here? He was fired. Bush 41 only sent his son to talk to him because Sununu was such a tough customer and Bush thought W. would deal better with him. --SchutteGod 70.181.184.7 (talk) 23:12, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Role supporting Romney campaign in 2012

If we could find a suitable source, something could be said about his apparent role as self-appointed attack dog / "bad cop". His ranting polemic when talking to On the Media's Brooke Gladstone, defending the somewhat ridiculous "Obama gutted work requirements for welfare" talking point, is something to listen to... AnonMoos (talk) 13:05, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

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"First Hispanic governor of New Hampshire"

Does he see himself as Hispanic at all? His ancestors came through Latin America on the way from the Mideast to the U.S... AnonMoos (talk) 14:57, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Cuban-American

Calling Sununu "Cuban-American" seems wrong to me; calling his sons Cuban-American seems ludicrous. By his own account, he was born in Havana, in 1939, while his parents were on a business trip. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/21/us/behind-the-sununu-surname.html

His father was a lifelong U. S. resident and citizen, born in Boston. His mother was born in El Salvador, moved to the United States after meeting her future husband, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Sununu's father was of Lebanese and Palestinian descent; his mother was of Greek descent. In other words, John H. Sununu is a natural-born U.S. citizen through his parents, he has lived virtually his entire life in the United States, and he had no familial, cultural, or ethnic ties to Cuba. To me, calling him Cuban-American seems absurd.--Perez-Pena (talk) 19:20, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

That's kind of what I was wondering in my June comment above... AnonMoos (talk) 22:58, 1 August 2017 (UTC)

Hispanic/Latino?

Others have raised related issues above, but I am raising this one again: Is John H. Sununu Hispanic/Latino? This page does not identify him that way, and neither does the Wikipedia page of his son Chris Sununu. However, his son John E. Sununu is identified as Hispanic on his Wikipedia page. John E. Sununu is also included at List of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States Congress, while John H. Sununu and Chris Sununu are absent from the category of Hispanic and Latino American state governors of the United States (see [2]). All three Sununus are included in the List of Hispanic and Latino Republicans. I am confuzzled. Does anyone have any light to shed? SunCrow (talk) 23:36, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

Gov. John H. Sununu is Arab American on both his father's and his mother's side of the family, with his father being of Palestinian descent and his mother of Lebanese descent. However, Sununu is also Latino on his mother's side. His mother, Victoria Dada, was born and raised in El Salvador to a Greek Orthodox Christian family originally from Lebanon that settled in El Salvador. El Salvador, like many other countries in Latin America, has a fairly large Arab community, and the fact that Arab Salvadorans are of Arab (and not Spanish) ancestry does not make them any less Salvadoran (and thus Latino). By the way, reliable sources assert that John H. Sununu is fluent in Spanish, although that is not necessarily because he learned it from his Spanish-speaking mother.

Of course, John H. Sununu happened to have been born in Cuba, which tends to confuse people who assume when they see him listed as Latino that he must be Cuban American. But Sununu was born in Havana while his parents were there temporarily on business, and they went back to their home in the U.S. when he was still a baby. So John H. Sununu's specific Latino ancestry is Salvadoran, not Cuban.

Sununu's sons--former U.S. Senator John E. Sununu and current NH Gov. Chris Sununu--are listed as Latino in several Wikipedia articles because their paternal grandmother was Salvadoran. I assume that they will be the last generation of Sununus listed as Latino, since their children only have a single Salvadoran great-grandmother, which is more remote ancestry than generally is the case for persons deemed to be Latino. AuH2ORepublican (talk) 04:35, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

AuH2ORepublican, thank you. Do you have any info/sources on how they self-identify? SunCrow (talk) 03:32, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

No, I don't. But the way I see it, it wouldn't make any difference either way. When Elizabeth Warren identified as a Native American it did not make her one, and when Ted Williams hid the fact that his mother was Mexican it did not change his ancestry. AuH2ORepublican (talk) 04:37, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

But, for what it's worth, John E. Sununu was a founding member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference in 2003 and was a member of that Republican-affiliated group for persons of Hispanic, Latino or Portuguese ancestry until he left the Senate in January 2009. Given that former Senator Sununu does not have Spanish or Portuguese ancestry, he must consider himself Latino if he joined the group as a full member. AuH2ORepublican (talk) 21:00, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Regardless of how anyone "sees it", policies and guidelines are pretty clear: e.g. WP:BLP (WP:BLPCAT), WP:CATEGRS, WP:COPDEF and WP:COPHERITAGE: Heritage categories should not be used to record people based on deduction, inference, residence, surname, nor any partial derivation from one or more ancestors. The heritage of grandparents is never defining and rarely notable. In addition to the requirement of verifiability, living people must have self-identified as a particular heritage. We need high quality sources that verify an ethnicity, as well as self-identification. Attempts to deduce identity based on actions, ancestry, or creative readings of unrelated sources risks violating WP:SYNTH and WP:OR. --Animalparty! (talk) 20:45, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Climate Change Becomes A Political Issue

This is Jonn Sununu's legacy, and needs to be clear.

In his report Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change, Nathaniel Rich wrote that in November 1989 Sununu prevented the signing of a 67-nation commitment to freeze carbon dioxide emissions, with a reduction of 20 percent by 2005, and singled him out as a force starting coordinated efforts to bewilder the public on the topic of global warming and changing it from an urgent, nonpartisan and unimpeachable issue to a political one.[10] -- Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.221.56.7 (talk) 01:30, 24 June 2019 (UTC)

Why does this sentence appear twice in the article? כרסומת (talk) 14:58, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

and singled him out as a force starting coordinated efforts to bewilder the public on the topic of global warming and changing it from an urgent, nonpartisan and unimpeachable issue to a political one - this is crap, biased and unsupportable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.71.213.33 (talk) 15:47, 14 July 2022 (UTC)