Republicans Turn on Jon Huntsman

[Stingo]

How long will it take for Republicans to declare Jon Huntsman a traitor for serving as Ambassador to China in the Obama Administration? It has already started, and you’ll Repubs with pitchforks on web sites across the internet by nightfall. But this is likely a smart move by Huntsman, even if he is considering a run for President in 2016.

http://allspinzone.com/wp/2009/05/16/republicans-turn-on-jon-huntsman/

[lamp_shade]

1. I wonder if he'll break under pressure like Judd Gregg did. Then again, I'm thankful

as hell that Gregg "changed (:sarcasm:) his mind".

[Stingo]

2. Huntsman is smart

2016 is his if he plats it right.

[Baby Snooks]

3. Smart move indeed...

But not so much politically but economically. His family fortunes have declined. They are still in litigation over a merger with another chemical company. Their fortunes could improve with expanded business ties with China. And what better way to expand them?

His appointment will raise serious questions. But of course they will be ignored. Business as usual in Congress. Pun intended.

[Faygo Kid]

4. He had no chance for a political future in Utah. He actually thinks.

A moderate in Utah? Forget it.

Wife is hot, in a Republican kind of way. The belt is kind of Michelle-like.

[bertman]

7. I'd just go with "hot".

[burning rain]

5. Very unlikely 2012 would have been his year.

Republicans are obsessed with the idea that if they'll just nominate an ultrapure conservative next time, they'll win. Maybe after losing disastrously in 2012, they'll sober up a bit and go for a 2016 nominee who doesn't bark at the moon and run around on all fours. But Huntsman? That still doesn't seem likely.

[Stingo]

6. Any other Repubs who aren't ultra conservative?

[burning rain]

8. In 2012, there's also Pawlenty.

I'm sure he'll get nowhere, though. One I find interesting, though, is Huckabee. No, I certainly wouldn't vote for him, and no, he's no reasonable. But almost alone among Republican presidential candidates, he has some concern for working-class folks and has notably blasted economic libertarians, the Club for Growth in particular. For which he's been duly chastised as a "Christian socialist." I don't see him getting very far due to that heresy, but his campaign may prove to be an early test of up-and-coming younger conservatives' Ross Douthat's and Reihan Salaam's predictions that Republicans must appeal to the lower-middle on the basis of their real economic concerns, most notably outlined in their book Grand New Party. For my part, I think the plutocrats will remain firmly in the GOP saddle and will continue to offer working-class folks little but the same old b.s. that supply side tax cuts will trickle down to them.