I wonder how long the GOP’s only sort-of adult presidential contender can keep going when a serious polling outfit can find one (1) guy in Iowa who names him as his first choice. Palin pulled fifteen percent, Gingrich twelve and Michele sparkly-eyes fourteen. Mitt Romney might be leading with 21% or he might not; with Mitt you never know.
The pander strategy would serve Huntsman better if the field wasn’t already crowded with usetabe adults who had to redeem their sinning selves by embracing the pure light of supply-side jesus.
Bulworth
What is Huntsman doing? He had an almost decent rep before entering the race. He almost certainly won’t win the nomination. And he’ll debase himself in the process. Sounds like Lose, Lose to me.
Tonal Crow
@Bulworth: He’s probably competing for Wingnut Welfare (sm), such as a show on Faux. The only way he can get that is by adopting Teh Crazy. Otherwise, wingnuts’ll think he’s a RINO and won’t tune in for the commercials for overpriced gold coins.
Culture of Truth
There’s nothing Huntsman has that Romney doesn’t, except Mitt has more name recogition, ran the Olympics, and I believe has more money. It’s still Mitt’s to lose.
4tehlulz
>usetabe
what?
Tonal Crow
@4tehlulz: Used to be. But meh!
Sadaqat
Can’t make money in the speaking circuit by being a Governor and Ambassador. Presidential Candidate should bring in those 50 to 75 thousand per pop fees.
Lavocat
Supply-side jesus! Heh!
JGabriel
Tim F.:
Dude, way to bury the punch line:
.
MikeJ
“Gay rights advocates hold vigil to thank Gov. Hunstman”
Somehow I don’t see him winning a Republican primary.
Jewish Steel
According to H. Hertzberg, Huntsman was the one candidate Obama’s reëlection team truly feared. Hence the ambassadorship.
BlueDWarrior
Will Huntsman kindly turn off the lights in the office of “Moderate and Otherwise Sane Sounding Division” of the Republican Caucus when he gets unceremoniously dumped in Iowa and NH?
Ghanima Atreides
Huntsman is running for 2016.
The reason conservative candidates are dropping like flies on an anthrax carcass is that none of them can beat Obama’s incumbent advantage in 2012.
Romney is running because its his last chance, and Palin will run because she hears voices in her head telling her she can beat Obama.
Dig Dr. K’s clip with Bill-O at the bottom.
She is not running and even if she is she can’t possibly win.
Han's Solo
@Bulworth: He isn’t running to win the nomination in 2012, he is running to win the nomination in 2016.
Republicans are not like Democrats. They have party loyalty, Democrats have… Look a few threads down, you see that doom/gloom double dip post? Read the comments.
With Republicans running and losing is often just the first step. That’s why Romney, even though he has no soul and none of the actual positions he had while a governor, is the presumed front runner.
Huntsman probably thinks whoever wins the nomination this year will have a snow ball’s chance in Eva Longoria’s panties of winning. To win the nomination this time, and then lost to a Kenyan/Muslim/SecretTerrorist/Commie/Fascist/etc, would not help him in 2016. But seeking the nomination and not getting it might.
Bobby Thomson
@Bulworth:
Every four years, there is at least one candidate, usually a Senator, with a reputation as a statesman/eminence grise (deserved or not) who winds up looking like a complete and total loser.
TooManyJens
I can’t understand this at all. I had assumed that the only reason Huntsman was running this time around was to increase his name recognition, in the hopes that by 2016 people might be ready to vote for a sane Republican again. Instead, it looks like he actually thinks he can beat the divorced-from-reality wing by joining them, even though they’ve got a head start of years.
Steeplejack
Title fail? “Huntsmania,” maybe?
FlipYrWhig
@Tonal Crow: IIRC the Huntsman family is loaded, with millions upon millions of dollars from a chemical company. He actually doesn’t need to be a wingnut grifter huckster like most of the rest of that field.
Joel
my call: running for veep. Romney/Huntsman is about the most dangerous combination the republicans could field about now (still a heavy underdog, though).
Biden was a longshot in ’08, if you remember.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Joel:
Could a double Mormon ticket really work?
Joel
@Amanda in the South Bay: In the general, sure. The roadblock is Romney surviving the primaries. But since the republicans are turning to full fledged cannibalism right now, it’s pretty good odds.
Tonal Crow
@FlipYrWhig: Casual Googling indicates that his father is very wealthy, so you’re probably correct.
Cap'n Phealy
Sound the Horn of Urgency!
Hunt! Hunt! Hunt! He’s the Huntsman!
Southern Beale
Oooh this is good! Miami Herald reporter and Gov. Rick Scott’s communications director go mano-a-mano on Twitter. Looks like Scott’s people are playing Palin, whining that the media are being unfair because facts have a well known liberal bias. But read the exchange.
me
@Ghanima Atreides: God. That man (Krauthammer) is such an asshole despite his views on Palin.
catclub
@Bobby Thomson: “usually a Senator, with a reputation as a statesman/eminence grise (deserved or not) who winds up looking like a complete and total loser.”
Fred Thompson called to ask you to get off his lawn.
Southern Beale
Good post on the reality of the poor and how much taxes they pay …
Tonal Crow
@catclub: This is very good news for John McCain.
Hal
But if Huntsman is running for 2016, something I beleieve, he’s also doing so based on the assumption that by 2016 a moderate Republican who leans Liberal on some social issues can win.
The only way that happens is if the Dems win back the House, either keep control of the Senate and/or gain more Senators, and Obama wins the Presidency. Moderates might then be able to force out the Tea Party wing and enable Huntsman to have a winning chance in 2016, but that’s saying a whole hell of alot. How old will Huntsman be in 2026?
Lolis
I used to fear Huntsman, but now I think Herman Cain has a better chance of being on the ticket than he does.
Southern Beale
Libertarian Politicians Aren’t.
Krugman is so very shrill:
catclub
I saw a cross-table of wingnut versus non-wingnut GOP candidate and results:
Candidate___________Wins General__________ Loses General
Wingnut _____________ global disaster ________ 2016 sanity
Non-wingnut ________ __ meh _______________ 2016 double wingnut
Roger Moore
@Culture of Truth:
Foreign policy experience from being ambassador to China. That seems like a non-trivial advantage, given the general foreign policy weakness of the Republican field.
tomvox1
Today’s GOP: Mitt or Mittout you…
forked tongue
Huntsmentum!
Tsulagi
He doesn’t stand a sentient thought in a teabagger’s mind chance of going anywhere in the primaries. He accepted an ambassadorship in the Great Socia1ist Kenyan Usurper’s admin. Huntsman was an enabler. A traitor. No number of flag lapel pins will cover that over.
Studly Pantload, a full-service troll
Totes OT, but this made my jaw drop:
The loud ones always seem to shoot themselves in the foot, even when their on the side of the angels, issues-wise. AW seemed smarter than that. But now he’s basically admitting he had a shot of himself apparently happy to see someone on his phone or, er, hard drive, or whateve, only how that particular pic got singled out and Tweeted is a matter of ????.
Of course, nobody’s perfect, and men will be men, I guess. But – just – geez.
moonbat
Huntsman has already received Obama’s patented hug of death. He’s toast for this election cycle. He is possibly betting on building cred for a run in 2016, but my guess is the insane strain of the Republican virus will not be completely dead by then. It will still be an uphill climb for him.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Cap’n Phealy:
Wait a minute…I understand how he became The Huntsman, but how was it that he went from hunting to fighting crime?
gex
@FlipYrWhig: Like the upper tier of the right wing can ever have enough money.
Makewi
By only adult you simply mean the guy who most resembles a Democrat. Shocking that the right wants to pass on this guy.
Studly Pantload, a full-service troll
@Studly Pantload, a full-service troll:
“They’re.” “…even when THEY’RE on the side of the angels…”
Darn homonyms.
trollhattan
Sorta OT–Rumproast roasts Sarah’s NY bus stop.
http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/rumproast_exclusive_sarahs_new_york_makeover_on-scene_photos/
“I, the media whore” sign FTW.
MCA
Huntsman may have had a better chance running as a voice of reason with his eye on the Democratic nomination in ’16. Perhaps he’s come to that conclusion as well, and it’s why he’s gone full teatard. But there’s still nowhere to go down that road, either. He can’t possibly out crazy the rest of that gang, and even if he could he wouldn’t convince a sizable portion of the Republican primary voters that his service to his country as Ambassador to China wasn’t downright treasonous.
hilts
Priceless Huntsman diss of Romney
h/t http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700137427/Huntsman-swipes-at-Romney.html
gex
@hilts: How is the GOP race going to go with Palin and Bachmann in the field? So much of the GOP is about whipping them out and comparing them.
GregB
@Studly Pantload, a full-service troll:
Looks like Wiener is in a pickle.
Chuck Butcher
In ANY poll that has S Palin as a candidate you can immediately remove her name. She is NOT going to run. She is just exactly enough of a vindictive bitch to understand just how vindictive Roger Ailes is and what he would do to her with his network if she double crossed him by running.
Yanking that fraud out of the equation makes for changes that are not minor in ananlysis.
hilts
@gex:
I’m hoping that the GOP ticket has 2 of the 3 so-called serious candidates: Romney, Pawlenty, or Huntsman, because it will drive Chris Matthews out of his fucking mind and maybe he’ll finally get sent to a mental hospital where he belongs.
Palin Bachmann is Chris Matthews’ Wet Dream Special and it’s also the ultimate rapture ticket.
hilts
@Chuck Butcher:
I’ve always believed that Sarah Palin was simply too gutless to run for president. Part of me wants her to run because no other politician deserves to experience the agony of defeat more than this malignant carcinogen.
On the other hand, while I’m confident she’d lose if she were to run, her candidacy would unleash so many toxins into the atmosphere that we’d be better off if she decided to sit this race out.
b-psycho
@Studly Pantload, a full-service troll: It’s like he can’t decide between defending his career and defending his dick. If he could say, “yes, my cock is that huge, but I didn’t take that photo”, he would.
Martin
FWIW, the first Iowa caucus polling that showed Obama with anywhere near his winning margin (8 points) was less than a month before the caucus. ARG showed Clinton winning by 9 just the night before.
Polling caucuses is fucking hard. Feel free to ignore any and all results this far out as noise.
MattR
@Studly Pantload, a full-service troll:
I don’t think he admitted to any of that. I can see why you could read that into his response, but I think he was just being super careful not to make any definitive statments about anything he was not 100% sure of so it can’t be twisted into accusations that he is lying in the future. For all either of us know his wife took a picture of him sitting at the computer in his underwear and someone used photoshop to crop and “enhance” it. Or it was a picture of him in shorts that was edited to be someone else’s underwear.
@b-psycho: Heh. I guess Jon Stewart’s commentary last night got to him.
Martin
@hilts: I’m warming up to the Rachel Maddow theory – that Palin will run, but will only talk to Fox and Rush, and won’t participate in debates. Basically run the ‘everyone is a liberal gotcha shill’ campaign. And wait until the last possible moment because as soon as she declares, she can’t spend all of that PAC money on her family and shoes.
MattR
@Martin: I can’t see any real downside for Palin if she tried that. Even if she gets absolutely crushed during the primaries she can try and return in 2016 with a more conventional campaign (and she will have her fans convinced that the only reason her 2012 campaign flamed out was because she took on the lame stream media so they decided to destroy her)
Culture of Truth
Perhaps, but to GOP primay voters “I speak Chinese” might have, shall we say, limited appeal.
JPL
@Martin: IMO she will run for the Senate from AZ. She knows her fifteen trillion minutes of fame are almost over and she needs a new job to stay relevant.
Also, too I am disappointed in Huntsmen’s ratings. If the President were to lose in 2012, I’d rather it be to a sane repub. The repubs being good patriots plan on tanking the economy just so they can get rid us of the safety nets.
Brachiator
@Martin:
I really can’t see Palin surviving the GOP primaries with this strategy. It’s one thing to say that you are avoiding the liberal media because you are bashing Democrats. It’s another thing to try this tactic while trying to impress Republican voters.
But then again, I don’t know how Palin thinks. Nor can I understand how the media keeps insisting that Palin is worth covering (from a recent LA Times blog):
I find it hard to see Palin as anything more than a tiresome distraction, and until she enters and wins some primaries, there is no reason to pay much attention to her, particularly since she doesn’t even have any significant campaign organization behind her party bus.
I keep expecting the Palin tour to combine with the Charlie Sheen traveling freak show.
Failure, Inc.
@Studly Pantload, a full-service troll: I have to admit that I haven’t seen the picture in question. But with a Clintonesque answer like that – quite masterful, I must say – he might as well just go ahead and admit it.
Unless he’s hung like a cashew. If so, I’d stick with the non-denial denial.
Studly Pantload, a full-service troll
@MattR:
I get what you’re sayin’. And it is weird how the tone of the presser was, shall we say?, a little frisky around the edges.
But if the guy can’t deny it’s a photo of him, and I apply Occam’s razor – well, you can see where “hacking” isn’t exactly the odds-on inside favorite.
I really do hope he can be exonerated in this matter. I think he’s a great voice for the Left to have. We’ll just see where this goes.
MattR
@Brachiator:
I am not so sure this is the goal. I think her goal is to keep raking in $$ for as long as possible.
hilts
@MattR: @Martin:
I think Palin’s ego is too fragile to withstand another defeat. She’s a mama jellyfish pretending to be a mama grizzly.
Ella in New Mexico
1. Third Party 2012.
2. Republican 2016.
Brachiator
@MattR:
She could easily do this without being coy about whether or not she is a presidential candidate. She is loved by a segment of the population. Even her children bask in her reflected glory, as seen by the viewers who kept Palin’s daughter going on Dancing with the Stars. And she is still firmly dialed into the racial anxiety of the Tea Party people and conservatives who yearn for the good old days of White Ascendancy, and who view Palin as their Great White Mother Goddess.
hilts
@Studly Pantload, a full-service troll:
Anthony Weiner will be a guest on tonight’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to discuss all things great and small.
MattR
@Brachiator: I am not so sure she would be able to rake in the same kind of money if her supporters knew for a fact that she was not running. I think a lot of them truly believe that she is the one who can restore our country and they are willing to part with their hard earned dollars to make that happen. Granted, there are still quite a few who will spend money to see Sarah in person but I just don’t think it would be the same level of support if she declared she was not running. (And if/when she formally declares she is running, she can’t use her PAC money on personal expenses)
@hilts: I agree if she runs a conventional campaign. But if she does what Rachel is theorizing, Palin will always be able to rationalize to herself that any defeat is the inevitable result of trying to radically change an entrenched system.
The Dangerman
@Martin:
I don’t see her talking to Rush; the males of the Right can’t see her rack on Rush.
HyperIon
@4tehlulz: usetabe? what?
i googled.
it asked “do you mean youtube?”
Brachiator
@MattR:
Palin no longer has mere supporters. She has acolytes, who love her and keep her flame burning bright. They had no problem with her jettisoning her political career when she quit as Alaska governor. They don’t care whether she is a presidential candidate. She is a symbol for the ordinary Real White America(tm).
Actually, she has to file papers, not just make an announcement. But Palin, like Trump, ain’t gonna run because it would mean having to disclose tax return information. Palin is not going to let her marks know the extent to which she is no longer an ordinary soccer mom.
Although Rachel Maddow is an astute journalist, she often gets wrapped up in the ornateness of her theories and predictions, which rarely turn out to be anything approaching what actually happens.
As an aside, I easily predict that Palin will never run for any political office again. This means that her move to Arizona is not a precursor to a run for the Senate. Nor will anyone ever appoint her to any political office.
HyperIon
@Studly Pantload, a full-service troll:
I think he’s a loud mouth twerp. Mostly he reminds me of guys I knew in junior high school. He is probably his own worst enemy because he doesn’t know when to shut up. Gotta spout off and show everybody how clever he is.
Ya know, I don’t really give a shit about this whole penis pic tweet. But I am not comfortable with a weiner like Weiner being the “face (or voice) of the left”. Yeah, I know, you didn’t say that….
Martin
@Brachiator:
I can’t either, but I can see her trying it. I mean, I couldn’t see McCain winning by signing Palin on either, but he tried.
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging and try something else. Who knows, maybe it’ll work.
Just Some Fuckhead
Huntsman isn’t trying to win the 2012 nomination. He’s in it for the 2016 nod.
Brachiator
@Martin: RE: I really can’t see Palin surviving the GOP primaries with this strategy.
I think there is some difference between what you do when you are trying to get through the primaries, and what you do later.
And McCain’s choice of Palin as running mate was all kinds of bad, but I don’t think that McCain had a clue as to what he unleashed on the nation.
Anyhow, this is all fun speculation, but while the media thinks that Palin is fascinating, until she actually declares that she is a candidate there is not much reason to really think about her or to wonder about what her strategy might be.
Ghanima Atreides
Romney is a dead man walking.
Chuck Butcher
Damn, this Palin running shit is tiresome.
Her devotees never saw Gov (AK-R) as anything other than a distraction from her mission. What she does have to do is make believe run to keep them convinced she’s a ‘serious’ person of consequence. All she has to do is claim outside powers/influences forced her to stay out (w/o naming Fauxnews) to keep stringing them along – there’s always next time.
Both she and the media are playing at the voyeurism eyes game – and a bunch of you are playing along. Just as with Huckabee and Trump her future depends on having that television spot to keep the rest of their scam running. It is a straight up con – for the media and the stars; and you’re playing.
chopper
on the other hand, he does share a name with a giant, ugly spider.
so he has that going for him.
titan3
Huntsman would be a formidable candidate… in the 1944 republican primaries! Don’t really know what he’s thinking with his record; the Republican Party is crazy right now.
And on the subject of the 1944 primary…. Tim Pawlenty would make Thomas Dewey look like Ozzie Osbourne!