On Dennis Sanders' Big Tent Revue I've seen a couple of posts praising Jon Huntsman as a possible 2012 GOP candidate. Frankly, I know little about him, but if Sanders likes him, that's a point in his favor. A recent post there linked to another blog post, by Solomon Kleinsmith, who also hosts a centrist blog. When center-right and centrist bloggers start pushing a candidate, I need to learn more about him, as my own preference is for the center-right.
Huntsman is a Mormon — so what? So is Mitt Romney, who seems to be the best of the prospects. And long ago I posted that we do not want to impose a religious test on the Presidency, contrary to our Constitution, so this should not be a factor. He's been a Governor, which is a good thing, and he's also been Obama's ambassador to China (and speaks Mandarin fluently!), about which I'm ambivalent — being willing to serve the Obama administration is not so good, but I can't really hold that against him, because he may have only considered it an opportunity to serve his country.
Apparently, according to Wikipedia, he has positions agreeing with mine on taxes and gay rights, and opposed to mine on abortion and gun control. This makes him someone probably as close to my direction as I'll find in the GOP, but I really need to learn more about him. Tune in for more on this potential candidate in the future!
Huntsman is a Mormon — so what? So is Mitt Romney, who seems to be the best of the prospects. And long ago I posted that we do not want to impose a religious test on the Presidency, contrary to our Constitution, so this should not be a factor. He's been a Governor, which is a good thing, and he's also been Obama's ambassador to China (and speaks Mandarin fluently!), about which I'm ambivalent — being willing to serve the Obama administration is not so good, but I can't really hold that against him, because he may have only considered it an opportunity to serve his country.
Apparently, according to Wikipedia, he has positions agreeing with mine on taxes and gay rights, and opposed to mine on abortion and gun control. This makes him someone probably as close to my direction as I'll find in the GOP, but I really need to learn more about him. Tune in for more on this potential candidate in the future!
3 comments:
I wish I could be pickier... but Huntsman is as close of a moderate as we've seen that had any chance at all since Evan Bayh on the other side. There's a ton of time between now and when things will start heating up, but as of right now, I don't see any other candidate with much of a chance of peeling off enough indies to take Obama down. With Obama clearly aiming to tack to the center, your party will sink itself for sure if it goes with a hard right candidate.
Thanks for the link.
Solomon Kleinsmith
Rise of the Center
Bruce,
I wanted to get the opinion of a few people on the issue of health care based on this post:
http://bigtentrevue.org/2011/02/02/do-republicans-care-about-health-care-reform/
Looking forward to hearing your views.
Responding to Solomon Kleinsmith's comment: I fully agree with your statement that "your party will sink itself for sure if it goes with a hard right candidate." The problem is, can Huntsman develop enough recognition to win? I'd never heard of him until a couple of weeks ago, and I'm more politically savvy than most. There are other candidates who might qualify as "moderates" who are better known than Huntsman.
I'd certainly not exclude Huntsman as a candidate I couod support, but I really want to know more about him, and I'd want him to make himself more recognizable to the public. If he still comes out as the most moderate viable candidate come the start of 2012, I'd be happy to support him.
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