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Huntsman Announcement

SCDeac

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Thoughts? Of the little I saw he looked and sounded good. This is the kind of candidate who could give Obama the most trouble if he can navigate the primary process. Which may be impossible for him.

And he looks presidential...which shouldn't mean jack sqaut but in the media age it does. Abe Lincoln's ugly mug would doom him if he were around today.
 
A candidate who is to the left of Romney doesn't have much chance in GOP primaries.
 
McCain is to the left of Romney and he won the GOP primary.
 
A candidate who is to the left of Romney doesn't have much chance in GOP primaries.

Exactly what I said...and I'm not sure that he's left of Romney. That's my beef with Romney...who knows where he really is. My favorite Romney related quote was when Teddy called Romney postion on abortion "multiple choice". To me that characterizes Romney.
 
2000 McCain was. 2008 McCain was not.

Perhaps but it is a misstatement to say that only a RWer could win the nomination. No one would confuse McCain with a right wing ideologue.
 
Romney and Huntsman will still both face the Mormon issue in a national election. But in my opinion they are probably the two best candidates that the Republican party has. But it will be a tough pill to swallow for those Texas Christian Oil Barons to throw tons of money behind a Mormon from Utah. That is just reality.
 
Well it looks like he's shying away from Iowa and i think he's go no chance in SC as a Mormon. So if he doesn't win NH, which figures to be Romney's, he's got problems.
 
Well it looks like he's shying away from Iowa and i think he's go no chance in SC as a Mormon. So if he doesn't win NH, which figures to be Romney's, he's got problems.

Not sure why he'd shy away from Iowa, they can do some crazy things. Same with NH, so I wouldn't count him out necessarily.
 
Hunstmann is left of Romney today, but not so a couple years back. I still think Romney's flip-flopping will come back to hurt him.
 
I thought it was interesting how he said the American people find themselves in this crisis "through no fault of their own" then later calling for a return to personal accountability.

He came across as kinda cheesy. It could work for him if he plays it right, but I'm not sure he has the fire to do it.

And I do have to criticize MSNBC for their shoddy coverage of this. They played the first 5 minutes or so of the speech then cut away to have their panel breakdown the speech. I'm really tired of the news trying to be the news. Great piece on The Daily Show yesterday about all the networks cutting from Pelosi's regular address after she said she wasn't going to talk about Weiner.
 
This is the one Pub that could catch my eye, but he'll get savaged in the primaries. He's a great bellwether of GOP voters' interest in having a shot at winning the middle versus running a hard right adherent. Huntsman could appeal to the moderate voters (where the election will be decided, IMO).

Put another way--every candidate in the GOP ring already seems destined to lose, whereas Huntsman is unknown enough generally, middle enough nationally, and impressive enough personally that he could serve as the hoped-for "blank GOP candidate" that the middle could take a chance on. It's not likely -- the primary is a huge longshot -- but he might be the best the GOP can offer. I'd keep an eye on him.
 
Its like the 2010 midterms never happened.

No, they happened. In several larger races, the Tea Party cost the GOP several winnable Senate seats in swing states by forcing through a few unelectable hard-right GOP candidates that turned off moderate voters.

Midterms are completely different animal than a national election, where turnout increases and the middle becomes the swing voting block. In a national election, the fringes and party diehards are less important- the parties are too evenly matched and you need to win the moderate voters to swing the balance.

The GOP better pick someone who appeals to the middle, or their chances are even slimmer. Unfortunately, the Tea Party has too much influence in the primary process right now. They'll force the most likely GOP hopefuls to take hard-right positions in order to secure the nomination, but this will turn off moderates. This is what happened to McCain in 2008. Or, god forbid, the Tea party pushes through one of their choices as the nominee, like Palin, or Bachmann, and hands the election over to Obama without a fight.

That's why Huntsman is intriguing. He might appeal to the middle if he can steer clear of the fringe rhetoric in the primary process, but will any of the GOP actually vote for him? The party membership seems to want a hard right candidate even though such a candidate reduces the chances of winning.
 
If the GOP ends up with a Tea Partier as their nominee, this will be the nastiest, most spiteful election we may ever witness.
 
The alternate opinion being that moderates aren't likely to be attracted to either side at this point, so might as well go with someone that's going to lock up your base, and then count on turnout and motivation to beat the incumbent to carry you.

Honestly, the person on the GOP side most likely to attract independent voters or people who would not usually vote is probably Ron Paul.
 
Romney (if it ends up being him) may be flawed, but he's a long way from being Christine O'Donnell or Sharron Angle or even Ken Buck--the 2010 candidates that potentially cost the GOP senate seats.

stylistically, the difference between wmr and that set is measured in light years.
 
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