Jon Huntsman vows to stay in race after finishing third in New Hampshire primary
Jon Huntsman Jr.s third-place finish in New Hampshire leaves the former Utah governor with a tenuous perch among the presidential contenders as they head to South Carolina for the Jan. 21 primary there.
It was an unremarkable showing for a Republican who had poured all his presidential hopes into New Hampshire, but Huntsman vowed to stay in the race.
I think were in the hunt, he told his supporters Tuesday night. Id say third place is the ticket to ride. Hello, South Carolina!
Supporters who packed into the Black Brimmer, a cavernous bar in Manchester, were heartened by the results, noting that the candidate had been in the low single digits in the polls several weeks ago.
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/jon-huntsman-vows-to-stay-in-race-after-finishing-third-in-new-hampshire-primary/2012/01/10/gIQAprKbpP_story.html
Huntsman is the only one with some sort of a brain on the GOP lineup, for that I must at least respect him
wellst0nev0ter
(7,509 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)groundwork for 2016. He's not wasting his time, not at all. He has a long-term plan, I suspect.
sofa king
(10,857 posts)As far as I can see it, Huntsman seems to have no chance on his own, and the VP slot isn't going to go to him either:
* Romney won't have him because Romney requires a running mate of a different superstition;
* Paul won't have him because he's too willing to work within the system, rather than changing it;
* Gingrich won't have him because he's too willing to work within the system, rather than corrupting it;
* Santorum won't have him because he's too moderate for the snake-handlers, and of the wrong superstition;
* Rick Perry is unaware... just too unaware to bother considering.
So yeah, running for 2016 seems to me to be the only realistic objective he can have. If he's lucky, he'll be able to pad his credibility and name recognition without inviting the microscopic press scrutiny which has torpedoed virtually all of the other candidates.
Otherwise, his efforts are probably worse than useless; by acting as the lone sane and moderate Republican, he's probably generating more overall support for President Obama than anyone else.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)He makes the others look even worse.
mainer
(12,029 posts)Huntsman's been operating on a shoestring, with no help from his rich family. Gossip is that Huntsman senior may now see that his son actually has a chance, and will contribute lucre to his son's campaign.