Has Huntsman 'left the building?'
Huntsman gets national love.Atlantic's Marc Ambinder says his political instincts would make Huntsman a non-starter:
Because so many Republican primary voters don't care for gay people, and because these Republicans are more important to the make-up of the GOP primary electorate than, say, activist liberals are to the Democratic electorate, the political gadfly's first instinct is to dismiss the Huntsman case outright.How in the heck can he possibly compete in Iowa?
Then, Ambinder flips and says, hey, it could happen without Iowa:
There will be a big enough pool of pro-gay civil union moderate voters who are happy to make Huntsman their Mormon -- assuming that another Mormon, Mitt Romney, is also in the race and is by 2012 a dedicated social conservative. . . .
IF -- and a big IF -- 2012 turns out to be a referendum primary for the GOP, Huntsman could do very well, perhaps as a bridge candidate. He has plenty of conservative credentials and he has just as many reformist credentials. He's not very compelling on the stump, and he needs something other than his stance on gay rights to distinguish himself from other Republican governors with solid resumes.
How can you not have at least a tiny, tiny bit of love for a Republican Governor of UTAH who stands in front of a podium and comes out strongly for civil unions? And still manages to pull approval numbers in excess of 75 percent?In the weird world of Utah politics, Huntsman, who is calling for a GOP commitment to the environment, is moving ever further to the political left of the state's Democratic congressman Jim Matheson.
As one commenter on Crawler warned, "Huntsman has left the building."
3 Comments:
TPM is clueless. Huntsman's stratospheric approval ratings as Governor are attributable to two factors: First, he is a competent, efficient and professional executive who says and does all the right things at the right time. Every time you see Huntsman in public, he looks like he just stepped out of the cover of GQ.
And second, he draws electoral opponents like Super Dell Schanze. One would have to be under the influence of controlled substances to vote for someone like Schanze.
I would prefer to see a Romney-Palin Republican tag team in 2012, but I am fair-minded enough to acknowledge Huntsman's assets, even if he is a RINO.
Actually, the 75% number is from approval polls. The electoral count is 90%.
And, don't be knocking SuperDell. His comments line up very well with the likes of Joe the Plummer and Sarah Palin.
Huntsman would be a disaster for the Republicans just as John McCain was. If he is nominated it will indicate the Republicans haven't learned anything. You can't win elections by trying to act like a Demoncrat. NEVER forget it! And he can't read a teleprompter.
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