John Huntsman staked his campaign on the idea that there were some sane Republicans left, discovered he had made a catastrophic mistake, changed course too late and finally gave up and went home without making a sound.
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Elizabelle
Do you think the clown car parade diminished Huntsman?
I don’t. I think he’s the only one who escaped it with dignity.
He should join the Democratic party.
dmsilev
Given how badly he’s been doing, I can’t imagine this makes any real difference.
rob!
Good. Not that Huntsman ever had a chance at the GOP nom, but he was the only one who I thought could actually challenge Obama. Now I look forward to the WH ripping Mittster a new one.
Baud
I’m getting a password screen with your link. What’s your password, Tim?
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: Lord, no. He’s a relatively sane Republican, but that word relatively is doing a lot of heavy lifting. He’s a pretty hard core conservative.
Baud
@dmsilev: For a while, he was the only one attacking Mitt. Now I guess that’s Newt’s job.
sharl
I think your link needs a’fixin’, Tim.
In the meantime, here is Think Progress’ post on the story.
ETA: Hah, I see you’ve already done it.
Tim F.
Link fixd. Thanks for the heads-up
befuggled
Forget Tim’s password. Put Cole’s user name in there and start trying variations on the pet names.
Baud
@befuggled:
Tunchroethlisberger7
eemom
Oh for fucks sake. Am I the only one who is tired of hearing this acolyte of Paul Ryan being described as the last SANE republican — or as someone worthy of actual RESPECT?
You are only marginally less stupid than the Paultards.
Linda Featheringill
Huntsman probably hasn’t hurt himself because he has pretty much conducted himself with dignity.
If Obama had not talked him into going to China, Huntsman might be real competition in the future.
handy
What the hell was Huntsman’s campaign all about anyway?
eemom
Oh, and his name isn’t actually JOHN. Which is indicative of the amount of effort you put into knowing WTF you are talking about with respect to him.
amk
@eemom: Bingo. He was the only one to hug ryan’s curse publicly and repeatedly.
The left is so easy to fool.
Baud
@handy:
I think he tried to pitch himself as the only true conservative who wouldn’t scare independents away.
Villago Delenda Est
@eemom:
No, you’re not the only one. Anyone who takes the obviously under the influence of LSD Ryan seriously about anything needs to be escorted to a padded cell and left there for the safety of the rest of us.
Mr Stagger Lee
I got a feeling he will be back in 2016, after the GOP receives a well deserved butt whipping, and then maybe there will be a purge of the teaparty nuts and Bible thumpers. Of course that is from my lips to FSM’s ears.(does he have them?)
Xecky Gilchrist
@eemom: Saying someone is sane isn’t the same as supporting them. I think Huntsman would be a disaster as president but less likely to base horrific decisions on the alien transmissions coming in through his dental fillings.
amk
Apparently, huntsman people have either removed or made private all their anti-romney videos at YouTube. What genii.
David Koch
医管局哈哈
满洲候选人
An Idiot
I thought the deal with Huntsman was that he put all his energy into courting support from Democrats. I never saw how that was supposed to help him in the *Republican* primary, though.
Baud
The Ryan plan isn’t insane. It’s evil, but not insane.
The Dangerman
He might line up well for 2016 unless Mitt gets the nom (very likely), gets his ass handed to him (likely), in which case, no way the Republicans nominate another Mormon.
Warren Terra
I realize it’s harder than in previous contests because of the outside and unofficial spending, but is someone keeping track of dollars-per-vote and dollars-per-delegate?
Anne Laurie
If Joe Biden announces tomorrow he wants to spend more time with his family, I’m gonna laugh… #notintendedtobeafactualstatement.
AxelFoley
Is Huntsman’s campaign one of those “if a tree falls and no one’s there to hear it” deals?
fleeting expletive
Elizbelle, my dear, I want more progressive candidates as Democrats. Huntsman could possibly, maybe lead the republicans out of the steamy pit of hell they have cast themselves into?
They don’t have many’
Punchy
I wonder if Huntsman’s wives talked him into this.
amk
@Warren Terra: mittens wins or loses, huntsman will never be the prezinent. For all his much touted bidness ‘acumen’, the guy ran the lousiest campaign this season. The fact he was only one not to make it to the top in the klown kar speaks volumes.
cmorenc
@Baud:
A large number of knowledgeable political observers have speculated that Huntsman’s true goal in 2012 was to favorably position himself for 2016 as a widely acceptable, electable conservative candidate in the event Obama won in 2012 due to the excessive extremism and crazy-factor forced on the 2012 GOP nominee. IMHO however, Huntsman underestimates the extent to which the GOP hard-core winger response to being defeated by too much extremism is to double down on it on the idea that the last time round they lost because the party wasn’t true-red extreme conservative enough to win. The lesson of Goldwater 1964 is to find another harder-right Nixon, the lesson of 1992 is 1994, the lesson of 2008 is 2010 etc…so that may not be as irrational a notion from the wingers’ perspective as it might seem from ours.
Violet
I didn’t like Huntsman when I saw him debate. He came across as a tired dad who was finally fed up with his idiot kids messing around. He’d been plenty patient, but the time for fun was over. Maybe the other candidates were the idiot kids, but it came across like the people watching were the idiot kids and that kind of attitude isn’t going to endear him to many people. I got annoyed enough at him that I would mute the TV when he spoke.
fleeting expletive
Huntsman will be the GWH (Great White Hope) in 2016. This is just to get news footages of him now. He cn probably sound consistent in 16, who knows, It’s well worth his while (to his investors) to sponsor Huntsman right now.
gingrich–too old. Perry-too dumb—-Rick P no, lord please do not do this too me (Job did not say).
Whom have I forgotten? Sanctimonious? Mister Sanctimonious?
Warren Terra
@Baud:
If sane, it’s dishonest; if honest, it’s insane. You can make up your own mind which.
The point about the Ryan scheme isn’t just that is screws people out of their healthcare, nor that it slashes taxes on the wealthy – it’s that it arbitrarily declares the resulting government revenue will hit a certain percentage of GDP, apparently because the Laffer Curve or something. No rational person could believe such claims, so either they aren’t rational or they don’t believe them.
lamh35
from reports, Mittens is not supposed to be there when Huntsman drops out and endorses.
talk about ungrateful.
and scrubbing the youtube videos sure is a punk ass move, IMHO.
what’s Huntsman’s angle? An appoitment in a poss Romney admin?
JGabriel
Tim F. @ Top:
That’s so unfair. Almost one out fifteen Republicans voted for Huntsman, which means only fourteen out of fifteen were voting for crazy people.
.
Skipjack
It’s not that Huntsman is a “relatively sane” conservative. It’s that he’s not a damned liar. That’s the only real difference. He really is quite conservative but he’s not willing to make up what the other side is all about. Granted he is willing to pander and pretend to his own base that he is one of them, but he’s not willing to stick the knife in as he’s been called upon to do. That is what would have kept him in the race if he’d been willing to do so from the get go.
JGabriel
@Warren Terra:
I vote for dishonest and insane.
.
Yutsano
@Mr Stagger Lee:
I’m predicting the opposite. The re-election of THAT ONE coupled with a possible loss of the House will drive them into even deeper purity. The end result will either be a fractured party or a marginalized one. And the Democrats will morph into the more conservative (but still sane) party. A rather ripe opportunity if you’re a Green or a pure progressive to get the foundations started for a new left party.
fleeting expletive
Mister Stagger Lee, you are coming through loud and clear.
Geoduck
@fleeting expletive: I suppose Huckabee might make a stab at it. He was smart enough to stay out this time around.
Kane
If you tune-in to a few episodes of the Kardashians, there is a likelihood that you’ll eventually begin to rationalize that there’s a sane Kardashian in the bunch.
Schlemizel
Show of hands – who is surprised by this?
The only shocking thing is that he pretended he had a chance for as long as he did. How long before W’s dumber brother calls it quits?
PaulW
You do realize this leaves us with Romney, Santorum, Paul, Gingrich, Perry, and whomever Karl Rove tries to insert into a brokered convention in Tampa…
Yutsano
@Geoduck:
Oh I hope so. Huck has so many entertaining skeletons in his closet to fuck around with he’ll barely have a reputation on FOX anymore. Not to mention he raised taxes as governor of Arkansas. Bad Huck. No purity biscuit!
JGabriel
@fleeting expletive:
Frankly, Romney is also too old. Dude’ll be 65 in March, and everyone who started the office older than 62 — Reagan, Harrison, Buchanan, Bush I, and Taylor — has done a mediocre to piss poor job of it.
.
MikeJ
@Yutsano: If he lives long enough, Pat Buchanan will walk to the ’16 nom.
suzanne
I’m wondering what Cabinet position he thinks his cousin Mitt will give him now.
At least the LDS Church is now spared the embarrassing prospect of having to sorta-kinda-not-really endorse one over the other.
Rathskeller
@Schlemizel: Perry will drop out if he can’t convert in SC. It’s plain he thinks he has a chance there. Or “thinks”, if you prefer.
Schlemizel
@Geoduck:
The sad part (for him NOT for the country) is that this year might have been his year. He would have done better in IA than Ol Frothy, probably enough to beat Willard. Without the chance to win IA Willard would not have run the attack ads on Salamander & it would have dropped out too. That would have allowed him 2nd in NH. He would probably be leading in SC.
Violet
@Yutsano:
And didn’t he pardon or allow early release or something of the guy who went on to kill the cops in the Seattle area a few years ago?
fleeting expletive
Geoduck, my fantasy and my prediction and my hope is that this evangelical whatever it is will have faded from popularity by then.
Huck will come back as a less evangelical dude. It”ll be Huck Huckabee (OH yeah, but he will drop out early)\\
Wo’t be this Bachmann, but another one.
amk
someone should put morning joke on suicide watch.
JPK
@David Koch: I heard a rumor that it was the Huntsman campaign itself that was actually responsible for that ad. Weird.
Rathskeller
@PaulW: Pawlenty-Cheney (Liz) in 2012!
Rita R.
Huntsman wrongly got tagged as a moderate — and got all kinds of Village media fluffing — because the bar has been set so low by the modern Republican Party that a GOP presidential candidate who doesn’t thunder on about President Obama being a godless — yet also Muslim — anti-American Marxist who apologizes and bows to every foreign leader and wants to turn the U.S. into a communist state with a New Black Panther paramilitary force policing the citizenry is seen as the great centrist hope.
The truth is that while Huntsman was likely the most qualified of this year’s godawful Republican field of presidential candidates, he was so charisma challenged that you could visualize every debate watcher in America start to zone out the minute he began to speak. A great politician he’s not. Even if Huntsman had by some miracle become the nominee, he was never going to beat Obama.
MikeJ
@Rathskeller:
Not if Mitt keeps paying him to stay n and split the not-Romneys.
jl
I will remember Huntsman pandered the unacceptable pander, and went Ryan. Either he believes in bad economics, or he is willing to advocate disastrous policies to win an election.
Huntsman could have run as a sensible moderate conservative Republican who could win after the deluge. But he didn’t.
Yutsano
@Violet: Ayup.
Redshift
@Mr Stagger Lee: I think that’s what Huntsman is hoping, but so far everyone who bet on being the one to come to the rescue when the GOP recovers its sanity has found it’s a sucker’s bet. I doubt it will turn out any different for Hunstman.
It’s kind of like the Second Coming — anyone who thinks they can tell you the day and time it will happen does not know.
MikeJ
BTW, here’s what passes for sane in the Republican party:
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: He is a conservative. The Democratic party does not need him.
fleeting expletive
I last refreshed at “snake importers”. What have I missed?
Rita R.
I’m with those here who think the result of Romney losing to Obama (please, oh, please) will be a doubling down in the GOP of the already doubled-down crazy.
I wasn’t among those cheering after McCain lost in 2008 about the coming battle in the Republican Party, because anyone who’d been paying attention knew the extremists were going to win and pull the party off a cliff, dragging the country along behind.
Shawn in ShowMe
Today The Beetle, whose real name is Jon Hunstman, announced his departure from The Sinister Six. “These guys have lost sight of the of the big picture,” said Hunstman. “Organized crime has been a very profitable business for us and we should focus on expanding our markets, occasionally throwing a bone to the average Joe so he’ll continue to look the other way.”
“Instead, my former partners are obsessed with destroying Spider-Man. There’s no profit in that. The Daily Bugle was already doing a bang-up job of defaming Spider-Man but we can’t seem to get out of our own way. And the idea that the group will thrive under Romney’s leadership is laughable. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the guy was really a defective android from Stark Enterprises.”
Asked whether he would ever return to the Sinister Six, Hunstman replied, “I’m generally a forgiving person. It’s hard for other supervillains to admit when their wrong, especially ones that aren’t very bright.”
MikeJ
@Rita R.:
Just wait for the 2014 midterms. Satan himself will be on the GOP line.
fleeting expletive
I won’t speak any more tonight. I am DRF’d, but it’s all okay. I live pretty well day to day with internet and tv.
9 yo 5. It’s a good movie and I like it.
JGabriel
@Yutsano:
Yes, particularly if Romney is the candidate.
Let’s say it’s Perry or Santorum, though. When the inevitable GOP loss occurs, is there any room for the purity obsessives to claim that either of them wasn’t a pure enough conservative? Obviously some will, but perhaps enough of the party will be able to pull back from the edge to say, “We’ve gotta give up on the crazy. Independents aren’t going for it.”
In that environment, it’s possible Huntsman has a chance …
Nah, who am I kidding?
.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
Thank you for the gut-laugh.
gaz
@MikeJ: Is Tebow eligible?
MikeJ
@gaz: Same thing.
Omnes Omnibus
@gaz: Too young.
handsmile
With all due respect to “knowledgeable political observers” (cough, cough), Jon Huntsman will not be a GOP candidate for president in 2016.
Not only will Huntsman still be a Mormon that year, but he will have last served in elected office seven years before that as the one-term governor of the 34th most populous state, a state over 80% non-Hispanic white.
Being BFF with Dancin’ Dave, Morning Joke, and that ilk does not lend itself to developing a national political constituency. Should Huntsman grow bored running Daddy’s company over the next several years, he may consider a primary challenge to Tea Party favorite, Senator Mike Lee, that year.
hhex65
@Shawn in ShowMe: I concur with this characterization.
MikeJ
@Omnes Omnibus: He’ll be old enough for the House (25 minimum).
gaz
@MikeJ: was my intention. though my delivery
left something to be desiredsucked. =/Edited for accuracy =) heh
PeakVT
“Do we care? Are we caring about that?”
Omnes Omnibus
@MikeJ: He still sucks.
Redshift
@handsmile:
Worked for McCain…
Redshift
@JGabriel:
There’s always room. Remember, it’s not about finding a rational explanation, it’s about starting with the conclusion that the only possible reason for failure is being insufficiently conservative, and working backward from there.
feebog
Shawn in ShowMe for the win. And yes, when the Romneytrom 3000 shortcircuts in November the extremists will simply double down and look for their Lex Luther in 2016.
handsmile
@Redshift:
I believe John McCain was the senior Senator from Arizona in 2008, and had served in the Senate since 1987.
But perhaps you mean Meghan?
amk
So if the
establishmentrove shuts it down after SC or FL with willard the chosen one, would the primaries would still be on after January ? If yes, what’s the point ?Yutsano
@JGabriel:
RedState is SHITTING themselves trying to find their One True Scotsman. So far no one has come close to measuring up who’s still in the running, so no matter what they’re going to have to settle here. And that means right now they have no chance of beating Obama without sucking it up and getting in line. And right now getting in line means Willard.
Rathskeller
@Yutsano: RedState is really fun to read these days. Also, when you read it at the height of Bush-mania, there was an incredibly strong authoritarian streak. People would be given assignments by moderators, especially Moe Lane, for precisely how they should apologize for their recent comments concerning some matter of orthodoxy, or face permanent banishment. But now the inmates have the run of the place.
JGabriel
Yutsano: @Yutsano:
True dat. But, you gotta admit, RedState seems bound and determined to annoy every manager in the store until one of them opens a cash register they can start a new line behind.
.
Jewish Steel
John Huntsman’s ads.
electad.com/tag/jon-huntsman-ads/
Found by the inestimable YAFB @ Rumproast.
Canuckistani Tom
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Awesome. Have I missed the posts about the other supervillains?
amk
@JGabriel: LOL. Nice analogy.
Sly
@Elizabelle:
Or he can stay in the Republican Party and out of elected office, because those are the two places where he belongs.
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson
Huntsman is much more dangerous than Romney precisely because he plays the moderate so well, while being as extreme on economic policy and most of social policy as any of the obvious crazies. Luckily, he’s amazingly dull as a speaker and has the charisma of a dead frog.
Joseph Nobles
Huntsman did not quit himself honorably. He’s been shrieking about how awful Mitt Romney would be for the country right up until he endorsed him today. Nuts to him.
And after SC’s biggest paper, “The State,” endorsed Huntsman just this morning! Here’s how I imagine the call from Romney to Huntsman went today:
The bottom line: Romney’s this afraid of Santorum in South Carolina? Going to be an interesting week for Mitt the Ripper.
Mark S.
Republican Sponsor Of Bill To Require Drug Testing For Georgia Welfare Recipients Arrested For DUI
BruinKid
Huh, it’s still not up on his Wikipedia page that he’s dropping out.
MacKenna
“Apparently Mitt Romney doesn’t believe in putting your country first,” Huntsman said SEVEN DAYS AGO. Now endorses Romney… (DC Debbie tweet)
People who endorse crap are crap.
TenguPhule
Kinda worries me what the ones pitching the no child porn on the internets are up to.
Yutsano
@Mark S.: @TenguPhule: IOKIYAR. Also. Too.
Narcissus
The evangelical South is the hardcore of the GOP. What if the evangelical South goes all in for Perry or Santorum?
Calouste
@TenguPhule:
You mean like the Republican Congressman from Florida with an alcohol problem who was hitting on under-age male pages?
Cacti
Huntsman is the future of GOP candidates running about 8 years too soon.
Willard is the last gasp of the dying Reagan coalition.
Redshift
@handsmile:
So what, you think all senators have a national constituency?
The prophet Nostradumbass
Sorry to dump this on you all, but, I need a place to vent.
I live with my mom, who is 75 years old, and her memory is starting to go. She needs help with some things. I provide most of that, like filling the boxes where her pills go, to reminding her when she has a doctor’s appointment.
I have a brother, who should be helping out with these things, but he spends most of his time not at work with his girlfriend. He does what he wants, when he wants, without any sort of idea that maybe he should be helping out his mom.
I am going away for a week to visit some friends in southern California, and he doesn’t give a shit. I asked him if he would ask his girlfriend to call mom up and do something with her (which the girlfriend would be happy to do), and his reply was “mom has ‘s phone number too”.
I want to punch this asshole in the throat.
It’s awful when you start to hate your brother.
SiubhanDuinne
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Is there someone other than your brother — such as a professional for hire, or a trusted neighbor — whom you could approach to look in on mom? I understand your anger at him, which sounds quite justified, but it’s not worth putting your mother’s well-being at risk while you and your brother duke it out. Are you on good terms with the girlfriend, and could you approach her directly rather than through your brother? Or could your mother’s doctor recommend a nursing service or something?
You need the break with your friends and you need to be able to go away with a clear conscience and a good sense of security. I hope you find a good solution that works for everyone concerned, but mostly your mother.
And I get how awful it is to start feeling hatred toward your siblings. It so often happens in connection with issues about aging, ill, or recently deceased parents. I was estranged from my own sibs for three years after our dad died, and it was dreadful. I really really don’t want that to happen with you.
Good luck.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mark S.:
Yeah, but he apologized:
Amazing. They actually do say “Mistakes were made.”
The prophet Nostradumbass
@SiubhanDuinne:
I have thought of that, there are a few friends of hers who would likely be willing to do that.
I am on very good terms with the girlfriend, who is a very good person. She would be very open to doing something with my mom, which is why I wondered what the fuck my brother was doing.
SiubhanDuinne
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Sounds as though he’s just being a dick. Let’s hope it’s a temporary aberration. The girlfriend sounds like the kind and sensible half of the pair right now.
NR
@dmsilev:
Well then, he’d fit right in to today’s Democratic party.
MikeJ
@NR: Riiiiight, the Democratic party that expanded medicare and the (finally) got out or Iraq and extended unemployment insurance and established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and passed the largest stimulus in history.
kdaug
@Yutsano: Roger that. So they keep the powder dry until 16?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Rathskeller:
I remember when the Paulbots and Rombots were BLAMMED at the slightest slight and now they pretty much have the run of the place. If you have read there for any length of time you get to know who the regulars are. Usually the regulars are fairly in lockstep with each other but not now.
All they need is Michael Vick over there as their coach and they really could have a rip snorting time going at each others throats.
harlana
just heard about Huntsman pulling out this morning on the radio- interesting that he was endorsed by The State paper also, which i didn’t know either until this morning!
Michael Bersin
@MikeJ:
From Blue in the Bluegrass:
With republicans it’s insane clowns. All of the time.
PaulW
@MikeJ:
You do realize Pat Buchanan is the one who took a half-legitimate third party (Reform) and drove it into the ground back in 2000? If he gets in the driver’s seat of the GOP as the Presidential candidate, say goodbye to the Republicans.
(beat)
You know, that’s not a bad idea…
gelfling545
@The prophet Nostradumbass: People are who they are and no amount of knowing what they should do changes that. He may be unwilling to help because he is trying to deny what is happening to your mom, he may just be a selfish jerk, whatever. Resigning yourself to the fact that your brother will be no help is the first step. If you feel his girlfriend might be receptive, ask her directly without comment on your brother. I personally would try other relations or neighbors to help out in this instance & also make inquiries into respite care, adult day care & other services to make plans for the future. If your mom belongs to a church there may be members who would be willing to call on her while you are away.
Ken
@MikeJ: If he lives long enough, Pat Buchanan will walk to the ‘16 nom.
Surely more of a lurch? With Villagers fleeing in panic and/or gathering the torches and pitchforks.
Sloegin
Huntsman’s campaign was bound to crash and burn at some point. Republican primary voters didn’t see him as “the moderate one”, they saw him as “the other Mormon”.
When voters who would rather vote for Coke end up having to vote for Sprite, they sure as hell aren’t going to vote for Sierra Mist.