It’s time again for RPO to give some advise to the GOP, not that they want any advise from me! Nearly all of the candidates have more baggage than you’ll find on the Orient Express! After watching most of the debates, I feel that I’ve been thrown back in time watching “What’s My Line?” with John Daley. If the Republicans seriously want to win in 2012, they’re overlooking the only candidate who can bring in the Independent vote. That’s Jon Huntsman!
So what’s so special about Jon Huntsman? Let’s take a look at his background. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in International Politics, he joined up with his father’s lucrative company, Huntsman Corporation and became Vice President of Huntsman Pacific Chemical Corp. and Huntsman International in 1987. The operation was moved to Taiwan. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush named him deputy secretary for the Trade Development Bureau of the Commerce Department, later on appointing him Assistant Secretary of Commerce for East Asia and the Pacific. Within a year, Huntsman became our Ambassador to Singapore. Under the George W. Bush Administration, he was appointed U.S. Trade Ambassador in 2001, but two years of serving overseas, he decided to run for governor of Utah, his home state. Huntsman won in 2004 with 57% of the vote and in 2008, he won by 78% of the vote. As governor, he created Utah’s Flat Tax, which after 3 years ha reduced taxes to nearly $408 million and reduced regulation to rate Utah as #3 in 2007 for favorably doing business in that state, His one weakness while governor was spending as he raised spending in excess of 6 percent annually. In 2009, Huntsman was named Ambassador to China and remained in that position until April of this year when he stepped down to consider a run for the Presidency.
Why has Huntsman been overlooked? He’s been married to the same woman for the past 28 years. They have 6 children, 4 by their marriage and two adopted children. Huntsman, like Romney is a Mormon and performed his two-year mission in Taiwan, where he learned Mandarin, in which he is fluent. His Mormon faith may play a role, but it hasn’t been a major stumbling block for Romney. Is he a conservative? Andrew Sullivan, in The Daily Beast claims that “Huntsman is the only true conservative,” Governor Haley Barbour states that “There is no question that Huntsman is a conservative,” although they may disagree on some matters and , Michael Brendan Dougherty Politics Editor of the Business Insider and contributor to Politico, That Washington Monthly writes that “Huntsman is a conservative” in a recent article for National Review. His problem is that the present conservative position has moved so far to the Right that even Huntsman refers to himself as the “center-Right candidate” in this election. The Wall Street Journal states that Huntsman has the best economic plan among all the candidates. As for his foreign policy credentials, Huntsman has the ”most experience”, as well as the best-defined plan as well, according to the latest edition of Foreign Policy. With limited resources, Huntsman is playing all of his cards in the New Hampshire primary, hoping that a good showing will boost his campaign. What may be Huntsman’s Achilles heal is that he’s a Social Moderate on Global Warming, Evolution and Guy Rights. While everyone else is running Right on these topics, Huntsman is standing still. He may be closer to the pulse of the nation on these topics, but they may be difficult to overcome in the primaries.
As a former Conservative Republican for nearly 40 years, I feel that I can speak about the so-called conservative movement in this country, which would refuse to nominate Ronald Reagan if he was running in the present field of candidates. The Republican Party has been high-jacked by the Religious Right, Social Conservatives and the Tea Party. The Republican Party left me behind more than a decade ago and I find myself in my old age a Democrat, when my politics haven’t changed that much over my lifetime. Unfortunately, that may be Jon Huntsman’s fate as well. Aside from Ron Paul, who has been consistently Libertarian over the years, I have never seen such a bunch of losers running for the Republican ticket in 2012! Jon Huntsman is the only candidate who can challenge President Obama for the Independent vote, which will decide who wins in 2012. Romney contradicts his position on nearly everything to the point that you have no clue where he stands. Newt, although sounding presidential, is really a loose cannon and you don’t know which Newt Gingrich is going to answer that 2:00 AM phone call. Perry is totally out of his league. I’ll just shut up and let you listen to Michele Bachman speak for one minute! However, one of those mentioned above will be the Republican candidate for 2012. Fortunately for the Democrats, it will not be Jon Huntsman!
To read the entire article, please click here.