The Hill News

America's founders would be worried about presidential candidacies by the likes of Sarah Palin or Donald Trump, one of New Hampshire's former GOP senators wrote Monday.

Former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) accused the former Alaska governor and the real estate mogul of being more in love with the idea of being president than with actually being president.

"Both Trump and Palin also seem captivated by the idea of being president. They obviously like the idea of running for president, and spend a great deal of time talking about what they would do if they were president," Sununu wrote in an op-ed for the Boston Globe. "In short, they are exactly the type of political figure our co! untry’s founders were worried about."

Sununu and his father, former New Hampshire governor and state GOP Chairman John H. Sununu, have been active early in speaking out about the Republican field and their state's first-in-the-nation primary.

The elder Sununu has castigated Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman's flirtations with a run for president, and has highlighted only four Republican White House hopefuls as serious contenders: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

The younger Sununu, a former New Hampshire senator, wrote that he didn't view Palin or Trump "as a threat to our repub! lic," and, in fact, suggested that they might not even run, si! nce both Palin and Trump have lucrative TV contracts that provide them a broad platform to espouse their views.

"So long as the modern media serves their purpose, neither will actually enter the primaries. That’s simply not where the best opportunity lies," he wrote. "For both, the mere speculation about their running provides them with money and power. Why would either risk damaging their brand with a failed presidential venture?"