All Things in Moderation

Just kidding.  But I did come across a piece this morning that made Marks avatar, with his curly white hair, immediately jump out at me.  I’ll either have to vote for a Republican Presidential candidate for the first time in 40 years or “flip flop” on a comment if this happens.  I don’t know if I can really vote for someone so conservative or not, but if Huntsman will really take on the TBTF banks and promise to choose Simon Johnson as his Secretary of the Treasury (see what I did there), I’d at least be open to the idea, all bravado aside.

I’m not sure which statement stands out the most — Michele Bachmann’s assertion that the American Civil Liberties Union runs the Central Intelligence Agency; Cain trying to name the president of “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan”; Gingrich claiming that a luxury cruise around the Aegean gave him experience to deal with Greece’s foreign debt crisis; Rick Santorum stating that he wants to go to war with China; or Mitt Romney asserting that if Barack Obama is re-elected, “Iran will have a nuclear weapon,” but if Romney is elected, “They will not have a nuclear weapon.” My favorite is Bachmann (again) telling an Iowa crowd that if she is elected, she will close the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Only one problem: the U.S. hasn’t had an embassy in Iran since 1980, when 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days — something you would expect Bachmann, a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, to know. 

There’s plenty of entertainment in this crowd and most of the conservatives I have respect for are willing to admit that Republicans are struggling to find that electable candidate.  Even some of our conservatives here are predicting an Obama win, regardless of almost 9% unemployment and a 43% approval rating, when they consider the alternatives.  There’s speculation now that even Newt Gingrich could beat Romney in the primaries, hard to believe, but there it is.

When you also consider Romney’s close connections to Wall Street at a time when left and right alike are ready to storm the castle, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to imagine Romney winning states like Michigan. Ohio might have been feasible had he not full-throatedly flip-flopped to support the anti-collective bargaining referendum, which Ohio voters rejected by a nearly two-to-one margin. And with Romney suggesting we let the housing market hit bottom as a solution to the housing crisis, it’s hard to imagine victory in places like Nevada, where more than 1 in 10 families with children have lost their homes.

So, what’s the answer? I believe it is staring Republicans in the face: Jon Huntsman. He’s not just the most experienced candidate — he’s also the most electable Republican.

Huntsman has been dismissed from the start — largely because he worked for “the enemy,” as Obama’s first ambassador to China. Yet Huntsman is no less a conservative than Mitt Romney. He is pro-life, pro-business, and deeply religious; he even favors Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan. He still holds that global warming is real, a position Romney has retracted.

Unlike Romney, however, Huntsman has the chops to be president. An ambassador three times over, a wildly popular two-time governor who cut taxes while creating jobs, and a global businessman, Huntsman is the only one standing who can negotiate with the Chinese. As Joe Klein recently observed, his ideas are resolutely conservative, and his economic vision “is the closest any candidate has come to diagnosing the real problems at the heart of the Great Recession — and proposing a reasonable path forward.” 

Some of this stuff truly bothers me about Huntsman, Ryan’s budget plan, really?  I just don’t know if I can go there.  And I don’t have a lot of faith in campaign promises.  I’ve been at this game long enough to know that even the best intentions run up against the reality show.
  
He is the kind of candidate independent voters fawn over. His quirks — he rides Harleys, played in a rock band, speaks Mandarin, and dropped out of high school before earning his general equivalency degree — helped him get re-elected governor in Utah in 2008 with a 58-point margin of victory, even as Republicans fell around him. Were he to win the nomination, he would be difficult for the president to attack. After all, if President Obama thought Huntsman unqualified, would he really have appointed him to the most important ambassadorship in the world?  

Jeeze, he’s more like Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin is.  Harleys and a GED.  But he’s apparently smart enough to pick up Mandarin and serve out two terms as Governor of Utah.  Michi, help he out here.

Here you go Mark, a little hope for the Holidays.  Please don’t hold me to my previous comments though.


This same time last election, John McCain was trailing badly in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. He even took out a personal loan just to keep his campaign afloat. And yet, when Mitt Romney lost the Iowa caucus to a candidate who wasn’t really a national contender, the opening for McCain became clear, he won New Hampshire, and eventually the nomination.

It is not hard to imagine the same Mitt Romney losing to the same kind of far-right candidate in Iowa a month from now, giving Huntsman the window he’ll need. It may not seem like it now: but my prediction is that Romney will lose in Iowa, Huntsman will win in New Hampshire and eventually be the Republican nominee for President.

*****The comments above are not meant to be a political endorsement*****

Filed under: lmsinca's folly, TBTF Banks | Tagged: Huntsman, Simon Johnson | 28 Comments »