How can this be? I actually like one of the Republican candidates.

The Republicans need to give this guy the nomination. I think he's the only one with a good chance of winning, simply b/c he's not an idiot.

11/23/2011 3:20:22 PM

i'd love to see him get the nomination. but of course, he won't...

Quote :

"b/c he's not an idiot"

11/23/2011 3:32:50 PM

agree on Huntsman

[Edited on November 23, 2011 at 4:07 PM. Reason : ]

11/23/2011 4:01:04 PM

Quote :

"I think he's the only one with a good chance of winning"

What you meant to say is:

"I think he's the only one with a good chance of winning my vote"

11/23/2011 4:02:01 PM

actually no

see he's moderate enough to pull off many a disaffected former Obama voter

11/23/2011 4:06:31 PM

he won't make it to the general election though

[Edited on November 23, 2011 at 4:09 PM. Reason : nobody wants a G.E.D. president anyways]

11/23/2011 4:08:43 PM

Bizarre as it is, the ability to speak Mandarin might actually hurt his chances.

But it's hard to tell what the dumb voter will think. Contrary to popular belief, sometimes dumb people do vote for people they perceive to be smart. His experience as Ambassador should matter even to dumb people, IMO. You know, they know that global politics is complicated, and they know that this is a smart guy who probably understands it well. Even dumb people can see him as an expert on things that matter to the office of the presidency.

But then again, they might just see him as someone who speaks the same language they like to mock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnfwVRA7lz4

This is the face of the modern republican party.

Here is Huntsman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6baqIDc-v9g

11/23/2011 4:34:34 PM

i don't think it has much to do with china. i think it has more to do that he's not interested in pandering to the conservative base

11/23/2011 4:47:10 PM

He believes in global warming and evolution. He's surely fucked.

11/23/2011 6:16:38 PM

He's fucked because die hard Democrats (and even independents) refuse to get involved in the GOP process, thinking that if they are even associated with Republicans, their heads will explode.

Stop voting for corporate interest serving assholes in the Democratic party, and become a blue Republican. Just suck it up and do it and stop bitching about it.

[Edited on November 23, 2011 at 6:26 PM. Reason : ]

11/23/2011 6:24:45 PM

you're blaming democrats for not nominating a competent GOP candidate??

11/23/2011 6:49:22 PM

mrfrog

you like him? i can cure that.

he's mormon.


(ps i like the guy too and the fact that he can speak mandarin, but lets face facts, no one in texas or alabama will vote for the guy b/c of his religious background)

[Edited on November 23, 2011 at 8:15 PM. Reason : -]

11/23/2011 8:13:54 PM

I don't think he's running for this election. He's too intelligent to think he could break through this year. It sure seems like he's running for 2016.

I'd guess he's hoping that if one of the insane candidates are nominated (everyone else but Romney) the GOP will have a self reflection moment of "I wish we'd nominated the sane guy". Or if Romney is nominated that they'll think "man we should have nominated the Mormon who isn't an intellectually inconsistent tool".

11/23/2011 8:21:21 PM

He's too moderate. Moderates are dead in primaries

11/23/2011 8:22:34 PM

Quote :

"Stop voting for corporate interest serving assholes in the Democratic party, and become a blue Republican."

the implication that Republicans are somehow less "corporate interest-serving" than Democrats.

11/23/2011 8:42:49 PM

wait wat? this is the 2010 actual makeup of senate:




and then teh video advertises this:




so who the fuck is lying here



[Edited on November 23, 2011 at 10:05 PM. Reason : -]

11/23/2011 10:02:03 PM

Quote :

"the implication that Republicans are somehow less "corporate interest-serving" than Democrats. "

In general, Republicans aren't less serving of corporate interests. A few of them are, and they can be worth voting for. They don't win primaries unless there is enough primary support for them, though.

Obama will be nominated again by the DNC, barring some unforeseen, major fuck up on the part of the administration. Why not support one of these sensible candidates in the Republican primary?

11/23/2011 10:24:49 PM

Even I think there's a lot to like about Huntsman. So there's no way he survives a GOP primary.

Almost every other GOP candidate trashes the President no matter the cause, no matter the issue, no matter the outcome, whereas Huntsman at least says when your President asks you to serve (as ambassador), you serve, regardless of party. He seems fiscally conservative, but gets that a tax cut as the only solution to every issue isn't a deep enough understanding of the economy or the other national level issues a President must deal with. He says we've accomplished as much as we can with Afghanistan and that it's time to bring the troops home, rather than indefinite war which many other candidates seem to advocate for. And he's pro-civil unions which is basically the same position as the current President.

If he does well in New Hampshire, he could make a decent VP for Perry to balance out his moderate credentials/foreign policy experience/intellect and appeal in states that Perry isn't as popular in maybe. But I don't see any other way Huntsman ends up in the White House for this coming term, and I don't really see how anyone other than Romney actually wins the primary.

11/23/2011 10:36:46 PM

I dunno, at the rate GOP Presidential candidates are dropping like flies, Huntsman might just be the last man standing.

11/23/2011 11:10:31 PM

At the moment Jon Huntsman is the only Republican candidate I would vote for, both in the primary and the general election. He doesn't pander to the base, he's a sharp guy, and although foreign policy isn't a big factor for most voters, it is for me -- and, just maybe, people will see the wisdom in having leaders who know anything at all about China.

^That's my only hope. The other candidates have generally been good at shooting themselves in the foot (although, in Newt Gingrich's case, it seems one can recover from that). Huntsman doesn't even have to wait for Romney to do something stupid. Maybe if all the total bullshit candidates drop off the map like Bachmann, people who have been desperate for a Romney alternative will suddenly realize that Huntsman exists and has a snowball's chance in hell.

11/24/2011 1:34:53 AM

Republicans don't do moderates.

11/24/2011 1:36:44 AM

Nobody does moderates in the primaries. That's the whole problem. Democrats in primaries promise to give us the moon. Republicans in primaries promise that the moon will be available for purchase to those with enough money, and also there will be no lunar taxes or gay weddings. Then the general election comes around, and both sides come closer to saying that the moon is just kind of there and they won't do anything drastic with it.

edit: incidentally, I don't do moderates either. Everyone I've ever banged was a far-left democrat/socialist/farm animal suffrage PETA freak. I think ultraconservative Republican chicks would be just as much fun in the sex capacity, but I'm not willing to pretend to be Baptist long enough to find out. One thing I'm confident about is that moderate women are dull as dirt.

[Edited on November 24, 2011 at 1:46 AM. Reason : ]

11/24/2011 1:43:12 AM

Then a revolution is required.

11/24/2011 1:44:26 AM

Right, I mean, that's one option...or we could just try some improved education and electoral reform, both of which would get us to a sane government without having to shoot anybody.

11/24/2011 1:48:12 AM

Neither is likely to happen.

11/24/2011 1:52:19 AM

pack_bryan, we have several conservative Democrats but no liberal Republicans in the Senate

11/24/2011 6:01:48 AM

I actually like this guy. Unfortunately, he's too smart and too much of a pussy for Republican voters to consider him.

11/24/2011 8:07:12 AM

according to the chart differences there must be about 12. is there a source where they name names of how they got this info?

'conservative democrat' = is that just saying he's a 1/10 on the scale of 'liberalism' and still a few points away from being on the conservative side?

also doesn't that chart basically disprove that???

11/24/2011 9:03:26 AM

dude the source is listed on the video still

[Edited on November 24, 2011 at 9:51 PM. Reason : i'm not saying it's correct either - just if you want to fact check it, the source is right there]

11/24/2011 9:49:58 PM

tbqh I did try to find the source by going to nationaljournal.com but never found that specific graphic

11/24/2011 11:08:25 PM

His latest anti-Romney ad:

12/3/2011 5:37:57 PM

Quote :

"edit: incidentally, I don't do moderates either. Everyone I've ever banged was a far-left democrat/socialist/farm animal suffrage PETA freak. I think ultraconservative Republican chicks would be just as much fun in the sex capacity, but I'm not willing to pretend to be Baptist long enough to find out. One thing I'm confident about is that moderate women are dull as dirt."

My ex was a faaaaaaaaaaaar left loon, and she was crazy as hell and nuttier than squirrel shit. She was also dumb as shit when it came to justifying why she was a far left loon. Good in the sack though

12/3/2011 6:42:24 PM

http://www.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dh94iTnGQ0oI&v=h94iTnGQ0oI&gl=US" target="_blank">http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fhttp://www.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dh94iTnGQ0oI&v=h94iTnGQ0oI&gl=US

12/3/2011 10:44:58 PM

Huntsman actually believes in science so therefore he would never see the GOP nomination. His best bet would be a third party run (this race is screaming for that).

12/5/2011 7:58:39 PM

Apparently these are Huntsman's daughters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoD2yDOqbrg

12/5/2011 9:16:51 PM

Ugly chicks dressed like whores?

Quote :

"How can this be? I actually like one of the Republican candidates."

Republican voters hate him. That's how.

12/6/2011 12:21:01 PM

It really shows how far gone the right is that Huntsman, probably the strongest moderate of them all, isn't even treated as a contender. The Tea Party wing in particular never got over the 2008 defeat and are still convinced that they alone hold the key to the presidential mandate (They, after all, are the folks who elected Bush twice). It's unfathomable to them that they'd need a single moderate vote to win the Presidency because they're so deeply entrenched in their in-group. They're so concerned with opposing liberals on anything and everything they'll nominate the most notorious adulterous, politics-as-usual, Washington-insider in history just out of spite for everyone to the left of Reagan.

12/6/2011 1:39:04 PM

It's not the Tea Party's fault that Huntsman has zero charisma and can't even beat out Romney, the guy that everyone loves to hate, for support among moderates.

12/7/2011 2:29:28 PM

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/06/9253711-huntsman-tweaks-climate-change-tone-says-scientists-need-to-clarify-facts

He's starting to waffle a bit on his climate change stance. He's gone from this...



To

Quote :

"I would say that the scientific community owes us more in terms of a better description or explanation about what might lie beneath all of this," Huntsman told an audience of bloggers at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington."

It's not a HUGE difference. Probably one he can get away with, but he's going from trusting the scientific community to demanding more from them. It's probably too late for the primaries since all the crazy votes have been claimed but if he doesn't vote for any legislation that looks to do something about the climate change issue then in four years the hard-right base will probably like him more.

[Edited on December 7, 2011 at 2:50 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2011 2:50:33 PM

Quote :

"It's not the Tea Party's fault that Huntsman has zero charisma and can't even beat out Romney, the guy that everyone loves to hate, for support among moderates."

I'd wager moderate support for Romney is flatly strategic. Huntsman is a newcomer, whereas there were plenty of grumblings in 2008 that the GOP might have won with Romney. I'd say Huntsman has more charisma than Romney, so I don't think that's the issue. And while Romney can bend and flip flop to meet the Tea Party, Huntsman is too far gone with his climate change non-denialism, lack of warmongering, realistic and cooperative view of China.

Bottom line, Romney will at least pander to the Tea Party when it comes down to it, and as we've seen with Newt the TP is willing to forgive all if you pander enough. Huntsman hasn't shown any inclination to do that. Plus there's a "the one that got away" feeling with Romney and 2008. If the Tea Party didn't exist, Huntsman wouldn't be instantly disqualified, so yes, I do think it's the TP's fault he's a non-candidate.

12/7/2011 4:53:18 PM

Bottom line: while the Tea Party absolutely influences the GOP, there are plenty of moderates and fiscal conservatives within the party who reject that wing. Those people have flocked to Romney, not Huntsman, and it has nothing to do with the Tea Party.

Huntsman is like Gary Johnson; solid resume and an interesting platform, but he doesn't pass the eye-test. He just doesn't look or sound presidential, and no amount of good press will change that.

12/7/2011 5:35:02 PM

Shame...Johnson and Huntsman were my two hopes for voting this time.

12/7/2011 6:57:39 PM

^ same here.

Gary Johnson's candidacy is clearly DOA, but I am holding into a slim hope that Huntsman picks up momentum over the next month and scores an upset in New Hampshire. Or that Huntsman goes 3rd party, and makes the race really interesting.

12/7/2011 8:19:56 PM

hopefully this guy is going to be a solid option for 2016

12/8/2011 12:04:25 PM

2016 is pretty optimistic, it would require of the GOP a serious realignment on a number of issues towards being more moderate. I don't know how such a huge realignment could happen unless they suffered a MASSIVE embarrassment in 2012. Even then, shit, they suffered a massive embarrassment in 2008 and responded by getting crazier.

12/8/2011 12:17:54 PM

Losing in 2012 should be a huge embarrassment. If you can't unseat a president in a prolonged recession, then you suck a lot. Recessions are typically president killers.

12/11/2011 1:26:19 PM

Quote :

"but I am holding into a slim hope that Huntsman picks up momentum over the next month and scores an upset in New Hampshire."

I think this could obviously happen. I think there's widespread dissatisfaction with the republican candidates.

Quote :

"Or that Huntsman goes 3rd party, and makes the race really interesting."

There is no reason to entertain this possibility. We have no indications that this is possible whatsoever. Plus, we have at least 2 other candidates who have mentioned running 3rd party, both with vastly more resources at their disposal than Huntsman.

Quote :

"If you can't unseat a president in a prolonged recession, then you suck a lot. Recessions are typically president killers."

Obama has a very good chance of winning. Look at Carter. In the popular vote, he won his first election with about 2% more than his opponent. In his 2nd election when he lost, it was 50 / 41 / 6, for Regan, Carter, and the independent. Obama won in 2008 with 52.9% / 45.7%

Which side does an independent candidate stand to benefit? Obama. Do you think a progressive is going to independent? No, all the potential independents are rallying small government support.

simply...

Romney would probably loose to Obama
Perry would probably loose
Gingrich could have a chance
Huntsman could have a chance

12/11/2011 1:47:49 PM

^^the recession ended more than 2 years ago, early in the Obama Administration

12/11/2011 3:23:21 PM

Who'd the recession end for? Bankers and bureaucrats?

12/11/2011 4:45:04 PM

Is it too much to ask a college-educated person to know the difference between loose and lose?

12/11/2011 9:50:52 PM