Huntsman defends service as ambassador to China

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Mitt Romney addresses Jon Huntsman at Sunday morning's New Hampshire debate sponsored by Meet the Press.

During Sunday's New Hampshire debate, Jon Huntsman chided Mitt Romney over a personal swipe at Saturday night's debate, saying that Huntsman was not qualified to be the Republican nominee because he had served as the United States ambassador to China. I suppose you would think maybe Romney would have rephrased his answer a bit more diplomatically on Sunday morning, but no. When given the chance, Mitt Romney couldn't (or wouldn't) qualify his insult from the previous night, and instead repeated it. Jon Huntsman was so visibly angry, his eyes were tearing up.Huntsman's response was PERFECT. I thought it was a fantastic moment. And on a sidebar-- Mitt Romney's personal attack is a great example of why every other campaign manager in the 2008 Republican primary season despised him to a level unheard of in political campaigns; even when these managers realized their own candidates had lost the chance to win the nomination, they did everything to see to it Romney lost.^[1] Jon Huntsman's performance during the two weekend debates has resulted in some significant gains in polling today, but I don't think it's going to stop Mitt Romney. But Jon Huntsman has definitely struck a note with an electorate that is screaming for their political leaders to put the country first.


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[1.] Game Change. John Heilemann and Mark Halperin authors.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Given how much debt the USA owes to China to pay for Mr. Bush's wars, isn't the position of Ambassador to China kind-of sort-of rather important? Certainly moreso than being governor of Massachusetts.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Not only that, but he passed a market-based health care reform with no mandate in his state. The guy is the exact opposite of Romney, in ways that should play in his favor. But because he refuses to pander to ignorant fundies who refuse to accept scientific realities, he's irrelevant.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

It is amazing that no one seems to have given serious consideration to the fact that at this particular juncture in history, we have a candidate for president who knows China as well as anyone in politics.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I think I squirted here a little. <3

[404.livejournal.com]

Clean up on aisle ddstory!

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

It's a shame that a guy like Huntsman has no realistic chances of winning the nomination. The key here is money, not integrity, expertise or even eloquence.

And he could've beaten Obama in a parallel universe, where *other* factors matter in politics...

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

capitalism, not democracy, is at play?

[404.livejournal.com]

Maybe Huntsman is lucky he has been under the radar for the last few months, seeing how the other candidates go from worst to first, and then flame out completely.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

He seems like a decent person. It's unfortunate that his ideas are bad.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

*David Attenborough voice*

Here we can see the Jon Huntsman, a rare example of the Republican genus which isn't insane and is only moderately evil. A rare and endangered species, having been ousted from its usual habitat by the far more successful Republican Moronus.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Sounds un-American to me. ;)

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

He has sold his soul to the Chinese!

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

I think it makes him communist by association and/or osmosis.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I was listening to an interesting interview on the radio today with a political researcher. The main findings are that:
1) "independents" are generally full of shit. The majority of independents vote for their particular side 85% of the time.
2) Independents are irrelevant. Often a candidate will carry the independent vote and still lose the election. It is much more effective to rally your base than to reach for the independent vote.


Also, the republicans are in a sort of sticky wicket. If Romney is their candidate, I really don't see him rallying the base. He's actually getting about the same numbers he got last time, it's just there's nobody around to beat him this time. If I was a traditional republican campaign donor, I think I'd be saving my money this time around.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

The most important thing is, Hunstman knows what its like to live under the protection of Marine security guards.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

He has an understanding of the nation that is going to be the most important in terms of the US's economic and geo-political future. This makes him unqualified to be a republican president.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

In order to be president anymore, you have to either be or pretend to be as dumb as the average voter.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Well, he does stick out as a reasonable guy among all those clowns. And that says a lot about them, not him.

[omnot.livejournal.com]

I see this playing out as follows: Someone other than Huntsman (probably Romney at this point) gets the nomination and bombs out spectacularly in the coming election (which is going to be darn difficult for the Republicans to win in any case, and an unusually fraught task to lead over the next few years). After the election loss for the Republicans, Huntsman becomes the "decent man who could have won it" and gets the nomination next time when, with luck, the Republicans will have more hope of getting in.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an evil conspiracy plan!

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

After the election loss for the Republicans, Huntsman becomes the "decent man who could have won it"

Nope. It will just "prove" that they need a "real conservative" to win the next election. Moderates losing (and Romney is pretty moderate overall) just stigmatizes other moderates.

[hikarugenji.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, the problem is not that he was the ambassador to China, but that he was *Obama's* ambassador to China. That is, doing anything for Obama in any capacity disqualifies you from being a Republican president. Which is just another problem with the politics -- if you ever want to be a serious candidate, you can't do anything for a politician of the opposite party.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

I hate the winning is more important than governing well mentally that abounds in the US as well as here. I think it's a characteristic of two party politics.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I confess I find it highly amusing for leftists, democrats, and progressives, arguing about who the best republican candidate should be since it nearly always turns out to be someone they wouldn't vote for anyway, and has absolutely no chance to defeat the candidate of their choice; by all means continue :D

[yelena-r0ssini.livejournal.com]

It's not like we're changing our registration to vote in your party primaries, or something, but the person who will be the other 50% of our credible choices for president is kind of an important thing for us to be keeping an eye on. Are you telling me that you didn't monitor or discuss the Democratic primaries at ALL in '08?

[yelena-r0ssini.livejournal.com]

I'll be in my bunk.

Seriously, Huntsman impresses me more and more with each passing day. He's the only current Republican candidate I wouldn't actually retch at the thought of voting for. What a mensch!