Why huntsman should be taken seriously

The reasons why Huntsman can't win are legion -- he's polling within the margin of error of zero ; he's taken numerous moderate positions Republicans can't tolerate; he has worked for, praised and been praised by Obama; there's already another mainstream competent Mormon former governor competing for the same limited slice of the primary electorate; and Huntsman's own recognition that he's too moderate for the current GOP.

But the main obstacle is that Huntsman differs with the entire Republican Party on the party's most fundamental strategic question, which is how to respond to Obama. Here's Huntsman early in :. So you had the Republicans assuming a posture of maximal opposition vis a vis Obama in early At least the outlines of a different strategy were on offer. They already had too many candidates to choose from. By positioning himself as an opponent of vested interests and a vocal defender of government intervention where it is needed, he could have staked out a position as the heir to the tradition of moderate Republicanism—the Republicanism of Teddy, Ike, Richard Lugar, and Bob Dole.

Huntsman would have ended up losing anyway. But in the process he could have created an enduring platform for himself as a man of integrity who fights for his principles, who puts beliefs ahead of electoral gain—a sort of Ron Paul of the Rockefeller Republican set.

And that, surely, would have been a more favorable legacy—both for him and for other Republican pragmatists who believe the party, with its embrace of voodoo economics, retrogressive social values, and pseudo-science, is on a path to self-destruction.

Their view is that Mr. But most Democrats and some of my fellow media types seem to regard Mr. Among other things, they point to a recent Washington Post-ABC poll that found that only 35 percent of Republicans had even heard of Mr. Huntsman — and 36 percent of those voters said there was no chance they would vote for him. At that rate, Herman Cain should mop the floor with the guy. The disagreement, I think, is in large part about how you view the Republican Party at the moment.

But Chinese observers are familiar enough with the American political process not to take anything they hear during a presidential campaign too seriously. Already a subscriber? Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in.

We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations. Your subscription to The Christian Science Monitor has expired. You can renew your subscription or continue to use the site without a subscription. If you have questions about your account, please contact customer service or call us at This message will appear once per week unless you renew or log out.