Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor and more recently U.S. ambassador to China announced today that he will announce next week that he’s a candidate for the Repub nomination for prez. I don’t guess there’s ever been a presidential field with two Mormons in it before.
Every candidate has some terrible blot on their past to overcome. In Huntsman’s case, it’s that in his ambassador days he served under Pres. Obama and said some nice things about him. Huntsman also favor civil union status for same-sex couples, which makes him the social moderate in this field, unless it makes him un-nominatable.
I wonder if Huntsman waited until to pre-announce so he wouldn’t have to participate in that dreadful debate last night.
Huntsman will have a tough time in a year when the Republicans want a hard-right candidate. I also think his entry into the race is another blow to the tattered remnants of bipartisanship. It’s a free country and he certainly has the right to run against Obama. But I think it will make future Presidents even more reluctant than they are now to appoint quality people from the opposing party to their administrations. Does anyone else think it’s a little unseemly to accept a plum ambassadorship from a President, then use that enhanced stature to run against the person who appointed you? I know that “politics ain’t beanbag” but I think it’s kind of a weasely thing to do.
Just when I thought the GOP were on track to drive off a cliff, along comes Mr. Huntsman a moderate GOP candidate. I guess the conservative GOP base will have something to say about this…
Ann is right on the mark, and on both counts, I think. Eric is probably correct in his guess about why Huntsman waited to make his announcement, as well. The only person helped by last night’s “debate” seems to have been the house loony, Mrs. Bachmann.
Huntsman is Twiddledum
Romney is Twiddledee.
One sucks a patrician thumb,
The other says Me-Me-Me.
This declaring my candidacy by bits and pieces is just annoying. Everyone knows that it is just a way to get free media exposure- everyone breathlessly reports that someone is considering forming a committee, and then that they have formed a committee, and then that they have a time period picked in which they will plan an announcement, and then a specific date picked for an important announcement, at that announcement they announce that they will decide by date X, and then they let out a news release that they will announce next week.
Bachmann somehow won praise for using the debate to announce that she was running- well, yes, why else would you be in the debate?
I always like your writing, but in this case couldn’t you have let this pass unnoticed as “non-news?”
Finally, and adult.
Huntman’s problem is that he’s more likely to get elected, but less likely to get nominated than the other GOPish candidates.