It should be clear by now that Huntsmania! is the only half-sensible choice that the GOP could make this year. Gingrich has flame-out written all over him and even FOX News reporters have started asking themselves what the hell is wrong with Romney. As stone awful as his campaign has been, Huntsman wraps the usual crazy conservatism with an easygoing charisma that will be much harder for Democrats to take advantage of. The GOP had to see it sooner or later.
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Zifnab
Dear Ron Paul,
No love for you.
Love,
Everyone Else in the GOP
Yutsano
Pro-gay, worked for Obama, same magic underwear problem as Willard…hell he should be cleaning up!
Dave
He also worked for Obama and speaks Mandarin Chinese. Those two things will go over like a lead balloon with GOP primary voters. And they matter a lot more than the opinions of Sully or Erick the Red.
Kirk Spencer
I think Huntsman would be an easy choice, were it not for his religion and the fact he worked for Obama. Those two elements, however, make him equal to Romney in the eyes of the ABR (Anybody But Romney) voters.
I think it likely at this point that Romney will pull pluralities but not the majority required to claim the nomination before the convention. OTOH, it’s such a nuthouse situation I could easily be wrong.
Comrade Luke
@Dave:
Looking forward to the Pam-Gellar-led Great Orange Boycott of 2012.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
One thing Huntsmen got going for him is he has some guts. Clearly they can’t stand Mittens for the weasle he is. So I suppose if Newt flames out they may look at Hunstman.
BrklynLibrul
Sorry, but this is a really lame post. Hunstman’s a Mormon, pro-civil unions, the list goes on. I have more of a chance at winning the GOP nomination than he does.
Seriously, what do Tim F. and Jonathan Bernstein and all the others not “get” about the evangelical base?
CaseyL
Huntsman is the only potential candidate I fear in the general.
I don’t see how he makes it through the primaries, though… unless this is the year that the non-crazy (and, apparently, unpolled) GOP voters decide to wrench back control of their Party.
David Fud
Huntsman is in for SecState, I think. Everyone (including him) knows he is not able to be the nominee, and probably not the VP. So, what else could he want? It is an extended interview for SecState, I think.
No evidence was used to create this post.
carpeduum
lol…timmy, who’s side are you on exactly? And is it any mystery why Faux loves them some Romney…seeing as how Rove is helping with his campaign and all.
Does Cole pay you by the story? You must have some quota you gotta meet to spew forth so much utter waste of innertubez bandwidth. Seems most of you struggle to find some new angle on the latest GOPer bullshit. Does Cole pay in percentage of sales/advert or does he just send you coffee mugs and tshirts?
catclub
All the big money guys who have so far backed Romney would look at Huntsman funny for the dead-on ads he has run against Romney. He may have crossed the 11th commandment more than the other candidates in that regard.
Tim F.
@BrklynLibrul: In my opinion the GOP knows that gay panic has very little life left in it as an issue. In extremis I doubt that it will be the disqualifier that some think it is.
Look at it another way. If the GOP can rally behind Newt of all goddamned people then they should find it in them to consider a pro-gay Mormon who in every other way fits the GOP ideal.
Ben Cisco
It will NOT be Huntsman. Bet on it.
__
And everyone, including and ESPECIALLY Huntsman, knows it.
__
He is merely laying down his bonafides for his “I told you so” tour which will launch about 45 seconds after Election 2012 is called. The poor man actually thinks there is a way back from the abyss the GOP has rushed headlong into.
__
Better he start looking for whatever party comes AFTER the GOP’s done, ’cause you can stick a fork in ’em.
StevenDS
His biggest problem is that he doesn’t piss off liberals. At all. In fact, he is generally takes more delight in pissing off conservatives.
And of course he worked for the president, so the GOP base knows that a Huntsman v. Obama race, and Huntsman administration in general, would be completely devoid of the thing that matters most to them – pissing off liberals.
It’s part of the same reason Ron Paul can’t get any traction – he pisses off both sides equally, and cares more about (completely nutty) issues than anything else. And Gingrich is doing so well right now because, while the GOP base knows Newt is awful, he is the most talented at what matters most – pissing off liberals.
Yevgraf
@Zifnab:
Dear Ron Paul,
No love for you.
Love,
The Talibornagain and their string pullers in AIPAC
ETA: Paul brings a lot of things with him that the Talibornagain love (a dedication to a set of nationwide feudal theonomies that could later be consolidated into a nationalized theocracy in order to pound the urban clusters down), but they can’t abide his overall disdain for the sort of Jews that would turn the entire Middle East into a smoking radioactive ruin.
Napoleon
@Kirk Spencer:
Many of the Republican primaries are winner take all which means his plurality of votes will equal a majority of delegates.
Citizen Alan
I am baffled that you would quote Sully on what the GOP voters are likely to do. Does Andrew Sullivan know anything about today’s Republican Party? As opposed to the principled, intellectual, Oakshottian-Thatcherite GOP that exists only in his fevered imagination?
Marcus
@carpeduum: love your perception. Why now the sudden interest in Huntsman. Same underware problem as Willard…it will never go away. . Gingrich will win this Rep primary
Martin
@StevenDS:
This.
That’s the modern definition of conservative. Mitt doesn’t measure up, because he doesn’t piss off liberals enough. Bachmann, Cain, Newt all meet the standard. Palin did as well.
Governing has nothing to do with the choice, only bullying matters.
Cat Lady
The primary voters want to feel like Palin made them feel, and in the absence of starbursts, they’ll take the dog whistles that feed their resentment. It’s not rational, which is why Huntsman won’t get anywhere either.
IfWhen Newt flames out, Santorum the Scolding Prude will be the last ABR standing.Anoniminous
We’re twenty-nine days away from the Iowa caucuses and they’re trying to pull a Huntsman outta their asses?
Huntsman doesn’t have the national support, doesn’t have the money, doesn’t have the organization, is a Mormon, and is far from the en-maddened GOP primary voting crowd.
Brachiator
@StevenDS:
The more liberals believe and act on this inanity, the better the GOP chances for retaking the White House.
@Citizen Alan:
Great question. There is very little reporting on the sentiment of the GOP leadership. I could imagine GOP insiders “encouraging” Will and Sullivan to trot out little bon mots praising Huntsman. But reporting about actual strategy beats speculation any time.
Zifnab
@StevenDS:
Paul has some nutty (mostly just painfully naive) solutions, but the problems he has his eye on are shit the GOP just doesn’t want to talk about.
He’s anti-war in a pro-war party. He’s anti-Fed in a bankster party. He’s not afraid to tap-dance all over the third rail of Social Security and Medicare. The issues he highlights are *real* even if his solutions are not. You don’t see Paul going off on a ten minute tirade against abortion or about school lunches because his canned response has always been “Government shouldn’t be involved”.
Paul is working completely outside the GOP playbook. Frank Luntz doesn’t know what to do with him.
David in NY
@David Fud:
lol. A disclaimer that should get more use.
Svensker
Huntsman thinks we should follow scientists’ lead on evolution and global warming. That gives him a huge uphill battle right there. But if Gingrich flames out…
I don’t know if my talibangelical brother would vote for Huntsman or not. Two months ago I would have said absolutely no chance. Now, I’m not so sure.
Tim F.
@Citizen Alan: I did not run it because of Sullivan, I ran it because Sully quoted Erickson. Erick Erickson is a useful guide to what the stupid GOP base voter thinks and feels.
carpeduum
@Marcus: The really funny part of timmys post is that he used Hunstman and charisma in the same sentence….lol. One word that does NOT come to mind when thinking of Hunstman is charisma. But Timmy obviously has a hard on for him. More evidence that Cole is not a true progressive any more than his typing monkeys.
Bullsmith
He’s the logical choice but I don’t see any evidence that that matters in the least.
Gex
@Tim F.: The gay thing is losing its power with the general voting public, sure. But the people who are most virulently anti-gay are all Republicans and they do not want to compromise at all. Like so many things with these guys, what might work for them in the general will not work for them in the primaries.
different-church-lady
@BrklynLibrul:
Not if you look at it like an excuse to make fun of Sullivan. In that light it looks like… well, actually, it still looks like a really lame post, but at least it’s not clueless.
David in NY
@carpeduum: And you could stop sounding like some wingnut-troll in training.
Silver
@Citizen Alan:
Outside of the Pet Shop Boys discography, Andrew Sullivan doesn’t know much of anything.
Oh, and beards. He likes beards.
The Thin Black Duke
It’s too late.
The few not-crazy GOP members of the not-Romney fan club has proven themselves to be Not Ready For Prime Time players.
Otherwise they would’ve pimped out Huntsman a long time ago.
Meanwhile, William F. Buckley is in hell, watching the never-ending debates on a TV that doesn’t have any other channels, and he’s screaming.
Yutsano
@David in NY: He’s a bitter slightly homophobic Canuckistani who thinks he has JC’s number. Of course he won’t remove the mote from his own eye that is Stephen Harper, so in order to feel some semblance of power he attacks politics he has zero influence on.
Andrew Beck
Huntsman is running for president in 2016. If he makes it through this campaign without looking completely crazy he’s perfectly positioned to run in 2016. When the crazies don’t win in 2012, they no crazy part of the party is going to be looking for someone; and he’ll be there. Plus, I’m not sure that there is going to be a super strong democratic nominee in 2016.
Amir Khalid
@Dave:
Just how good is Jon Huntsman’s Mandarin anyway? A few months ago, there was an article in Slate (yes, I know, but they also have Dahlia Lithwick and she makes up for a lot of their sins) which said that as ambassador, Huntsman never gave a long speech in Mandarin, nor was he ever heard to speak extemporaneously in the language. And that when he showed off his spoken Mandarin on American TV, he kept to a few stock phrases and still made basic grammatical errors.
I think some Mandarin-speaking American journo needs to test him on his fluency.
Soonergrunt
@carpeduum:
pots, kettles, etc.
Jewish Steel
@Yutsano: His silence on Harper speaks volumes. Fred Galt Doom Derf.
Martin
@Svensker:
That’s just the implementation of the ‘piss off liberals’ thing. He’s unwilling to say stupid shit just to piss people off – like that the UN should be disbanded, that Iran should be turned into a sea of glass, that the border fence should be electrified with crocodiles, that schoolteachers should all be packing heat, and so on.
To GOP voters, ‘presidential’ means the willingness to call Obama a nigger and Barney Frank a faggot, and the difference between someone who is ready for the job and someone who isn’t, is that the former will walk up to the line and make the sentiment known without actually saying it, while the latter goes a step too far or comes up short. That’s the GOPs 3am phone call, got the stones for the job test right there.
Huntsman doesn’t have it.
Davis X. Machina
“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
Still buying Romneys at the market….
Bubblegum Tate
The wingnuts I know who are worried about Newt’s impending flameout are trying to talk themselves into supporting Santorum. Yup.
Brachiator
@carpeduum:
I must be missing something here. Is Cole supposed to be a true progressive? Are they handing out cards somewhere? Is there a loyalty oath?
Is “no real progressive” replacing “no true Scotsman” among ideological obsessive compulsives?
Tim F.
@Bubblegum Tate: I have not been a good enough boy for Santa to deliver the bad taste pun heaven that would be teabaggers for Santorum. Talk about low hanging fruit…
Soonergrunt
@Tim F.: I see what you did there.
g
@Amir Khalid: Just be patient, if he becomes “flavor of the week” he’ll get that chance.
geg6
@Napoleon:
Is this still true? I know it was in 2008, but I seem to remember them changing it to proportional allocation.
Will have to go look that up now.
ETA: Yes, I am correct:
http://frontloading.blogspot.com/2011/10/delegate-allocation-rules-hinged-on.html
The only exception to that is if the candidate gets a majority of the vote and not just a plurality. Then those states can make it winner-take-all.
NSinNY
I don’t buy the idea that Huntsman would be the most competitive in the general election. I think it’s based on something like the converse of “familiarity breeds contempt.”
Spend some time reading his bio and you see that his entire career comes out of the fact that his daddy’s a billionaire — not a very good fact in the economic environment. Even Willard looks less entitled by comparison.
giltay
@Yutsano: Really? I had that nym pegged as another one of m_c’s hydra heads. Oh well, all he talks about is pie now, anyway.
On topic, I don’t see a future for Hunstman. The primary is looking more and more like a pack of wild dogs fighting for alpha position. Huntsman doesn’t seem to be aggressive enough for the GOP. (My guess is that it’s still 50-50 whether it’s Romney or whoever is not-Romney two months from now.)
(Edited to unmix a metaphor.)
Lol
There are a lot fewer winner take all primaries this time around and the ones that still are around aren’t until later in the process.
McCain was able to take advantage of a divided field and take all the delegates in a state despite only winning 35-45% early on. Romney won’t be able to do a knockout punch this time around.
By the time the winner take all states show up, the field will have consolidated around a not-Romney and they’ll be the one sweeping the winner take all states, not Romney.
NSinNY
From Wikipedia: Huntsman attended Highland High School in Salt Lake City but dropped out before graduating to pursue his passion as a keyboard player in the rock band Wizard.
For non-billionaires, a bio that starts that way reaches its apex at working the full service at the highway Exxon.
shortstop
@Davis X. Machina: Me, too. But “A is A” might be an even better choice for that crowd.
shortstop
@geg6: Quite right, but there are quite a few states going after April 1. Not sure how many of them are WTA, however.
desraye
Have you seen Huntsman economy plan Tim? His economy plan is identical to Romney and the rest of the GOP contenders.He wants to lower taxes for the 1% and raise them for the 99%.Liberals keep saidng that Huntsman believe in climate change well so did Romney before he change his mind. Romney was also pro-union. So please stop saiding that Huntsman is sane because he is more dangerous than Romney.He’s Romney 2.0, which is a better Romney.
Davis X. Machina
@shortstop: What with Vitter, and before him, Livingston, I’m thinking more like “All S is M. All B is D.”
waratah
He is just as conservative as the others on policy and watching him on the debates will play to the right wing for those votes. Will that help him win independents?
shortstop
@Davis X. Machina: Well played.
homerhk
I too am a bit scared about Huntsman – although I very much doubt he’ll be the nominee. But then, I think, maybe it would be great if he was. That way there will most probably be a serious debate on economic issues between him and Obama (as they probably are quite similar foreign policy wise) and, you know, if we’re really confident Obama/Democrats have the economic answers to convince, he’ll be able do so without all the demagoguery that would be there with other candidates. just a thought….
MBunge
@Andrew Beck: “Huntsman is running for president in 2016.”
Then why is he spending all his time in New Hampshire taking on Mitt?
I think it’s also important to not that even in non-crazy times with a non-crazy Republican Party, serving in the current Democratic Administration would be a HUUUUUUUGE negative in trying to get the GOP Presidential nod.
Mike
trollhattan
An interesting tidbit about Fox News’ levering the candidates about. Whimsy or strategy?
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/12/fox-news-candidate-is-fox-news.html
Davis X. Machina
@shortstop: I just can’t figure out the conclusion.
Looking at Newt, there’s a gag there about a way-too-distributed middle, but I’m too tired to get it.
(I spent the end of the teaching day trying to explain why “Socrates is a mortal” is actually a universal statement. Not even the combined forces of Monty Python and Alma Cogen could do the trick today.)
FlipYrWhig
I said this on an earlier thread, but here’s my idea. Huntsman is angling for the people who like the idea of Romney but not Romney. Everyone else is running for the anti-Romney spot. If support flows to not-Romney du jour, there will be an opening where Romney used to be, and that’ll be Huntsman.
Huntsman is kind of like John McCain ’00, or, if not a good match ideologically, Bill Bradley ’00, the guy the press likes better than the presumptive nominee.
Kane
In any other time, a two-term Republican governor from the state of Utah would have ample conservative cred for those on the right. But when the leading voices of the GOP are clowns like Limbaugh and Hannity, then it becomes understandable that the base would be drawn to similar clowns who offer familiar rhetoric like Newt and Cain.
While Huntsman’s policies are just as conservative as his opponents, his calm approach and decent demeanor is not provided a forum in the right-wing media. He is foreign to them.
carpeduum
@Brachiator: I’m sure you will figure it out eventually. In the mean time I’m sure you can keep yourself amused between this site, youngturks, and fluffington poof.
Hunter Gathers
@desraye: But he doesn’t run around the country yelling about faggots, niggers or spics, and by judging by the incredibly low bar there is for conservatives these days, makes him Obama’s Nightmare. Don’t mention Huntsman endorsing Ryan’s plan for gutting Medicare either, or the prog-o-sphere wouldn’t have anything to write about, as the upcoming smack down that Obama is going to put on whoever the GOP nominates isn’t very interesting at all. Progressive wouldn’t be progressives if they weren’t constantly shitting their pants.
S. cerevisiae
@Tim F.: “Santorum Floats Up From Bottom”, “Santorum Newest GOP Flavor” etc. etc.
The headlines write themselves.
Paul in KY
@Bubblegum Tate: That should be funny. Try & make as many comments involving froth as you can when discussing the former Senator from Nablowme.
Paul in KY
@S. cerevisiae: ‘Santorum emergence whips up the base’
ChrisNYC
I was a bit afraid of Huntsman at the beginning. But wow, after seeing the debates, he skeeves me out. That sanctimony, creepy smile business he does. There’s a distinct weirdness/oil in the way he comes across. Joe Sestak had the same thing. Deadly.
Bubblegum Tate
@Tim F.:
One of them actually said this: “Santorum looks to me to be by far the toughest to run a negative campaign against, plus he comes across as likeable and sincere.”
No evidence of joking, sarcasm, etc. It’s pretty remarkable, really; one can only hope that attitude catches on.
Zach
Someone else is going to enter the race. My money’s on McDonnell, Rubio, or Daniels… or it would be if it didn’t take so long to get money into InTrade. It’s too late to get on the ballot in SC, FL, and NH, but there’s a bit of a delay before deadlines in most other states and plenty of delegates to get the nomination. If one of these folks wins Iowa, campaigns nationally while the rest exhaust themselves in NH/FL/SC, and is organized enough to get on the ballot in states like IL and NY that have complicated procedures, they could win. I find it hard to believe that that many people would sit on the sidelines when they have a pretty good shot at being the most powerful person in the world, and it makes sense to stay out of the race as long as possible while crazy people take pot shots at Mitt Romney and make him say more and more stupid, contradictory things.
Brachiator
@carpeduum:
I doubt that any site could amuse me as much as does your rambling inanities.
@Zach:
Could a GOP nation be turning it’s lonely eyes to Jeb Bush?
The Spy Who Loved Me
Huntsman and charisma do not belong in the same sentence. If at all possible, he’s even more boring than Romney.
The Swiss Army Knife of Visual Effects
@Zifnab:
Can we kill this nonsense? The “Ron Paul is a libertarian therefore he is pro-choice” nonsense? Ron Paul is vehemently anti-abortion. His stance is that the Federal Government shouldn’t be involved, but that the states should ban it. From Wikipedia:
Notice he’s going after Federal jurisdiction over pro-choice rights, but gay rights as well. Gosh, Ron Paul is swell!