Will Jon Huntsman be the Republican nominee?

[kentuck]

It is not going to be Herman Cain. Three-fourths of Republicans cannot stand Mitt Romney. Newt has too much baggage. Ron Paul is like Ross Perot - he is good for no more than 20 percent of the vote. The others, with the exception of Huntsman, are nuts. Through the process of elimination, we are left with Huntsman.

At the present time, he is running about 1% in the polls. However, that will likely change after New Hampshire. He has been spending a lot of time in NH and has been drawing some good crowds. If he can finish with a first or second in New Hampshire, he will be on his way to the nomination. His strength will grow from that point. The Republicans, simply because they have no one else, will unite behind Huntsman after the Nevada and Florida primaries.

As a side note, he was on Meet the Press this morning and looked more rational than any other Republican in the race. I don't think that will be lost on the majority of Republicans. They will choose him over Romney and Perry, in my opinion. I am betting that they are fed up with the "crazy" as much as are the Democrats?

[tritsofme]

1. No.

His campaign will be over when Romney wins NH.

[Ship of Fools]

2. Only if the *saner* Rs come out to vote in the primaries ...

[proud patriot]

23. +1

[bluestate10]

25. Is there such a thing as a sane modern republican voter? nt

[LongTomH]

3. His 'rationality' is the problem!

The fact that he accepts the scientific consensus on evolution means the Religious Right will come out in force to defeat him. His acceptance of the scientific consensus on global warming means he can't get the millions he needs from the Koch Bros. or Exxon-Mobil.

In closing, who ever said the "majority of Republicans" were rational?:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[monmouth]

4. Unfortunately, Gregory asked him little about himself but plenty about

Cain and Romney. MTP has unbelievably reached another low. Huntsman deserved more than that.

[Firebrand Gary]

5. Yes.

The Republican party is orchestrating a master plan. I have some other thought as well, check your inbox Kentuck.

[Pisces]

6. He's not insane enough for the Repukes. Believes in climate change, and evolution.

[lumpy]

7. Name recognition lacking

v

[SheilaT]

8. I keep on thinking that none

of the Republicans currently running can possibly be nominated, and I've never felt that way before with any presidential campaign. Four years ago there were clearly at least two or three on each side who could have plausibly been nominated.

I know that in the recent past, the Republican primaries and caucuses are "winner take all", but I believe that this year at least some of them are going to award delegates proportionally, like the Democrats. Winner take all means the Republican nomination is usually locked up pretty early, and if I've heard correctly about the change. it might actually be that their nominee won't be known until a whole lot closer to their convention.

There's also the part about the Republicans seem very fragmented this year, combined with the way those running for the nomination are moving farther and farther right, anyone they're likely to nominate is going to be so far out of the mainstream as to be genuinely unelectable.

[kentuck]

10. That is a real possibility...

They could have a locked convention. Then someone like a Palin or Huckabee could give a fiery speech at the convention and capture a majority of the delegates and be the nominee?

[SheilaT]

12. Possibly.

There hasn't been a convention that's gone to more than one vote to nominate since 1948 for the Republicans, and 1952 for the Democrats, so both parties have a 60 year history of knowing who the nominee is going to be by the time the convention occurs.

But you never know.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. He's too sane.

They'll NEVER nominate him. I'm sure President Obama is grateful for that.

[RZM]

11. That's a negatory

New Hampshire doesn't give you the nomination. Look at Hillary in 2008. She was a far stronger candidate than Huntsman and won New Hampshire to boot. But she still couldn't make it happen.

The idea that they have 'nobody else' comes from your perspective, not from a Republican's perspective. To your average Republican (especially the super conservatives), there are plenty of other suitable candidates aside from Huntsman.

[Nye Bevan]

13. Not likely, according to Intrade.

2.7% chance.

[Scuba]

14. I wouldn't be surprised. After they've cast out the idiots and zealots...

... they'll be left with Mitt, whom they DO NOT want. They could go to Huntsman and claim they've reformed the party.

[southernyankeebelle]

15. No he will not be the nominee because he is to reasonable.

[autorank]

16. Huntsman hasone huge negative in the Republican primaries

He's sane.

K*R

[Glimmer of Hope]

19. Yep. He makes too much sense.

[autorank]

21. Barking at the moon

That's what the rest of them are like (except for Mitt, who is just odd;)

[rpannier]

34. He has complained that the republikkan party has become

the anti-science party

That'll turn off the nut jobs.
He's also not a birther

[teddy51]

17. Not likely, but he is the only Republican running with any brains whatsoever. n/t

[Motown_Johnny]

18. I doubt it. Romney looks like he will win by default

once Cain fades back into the single digits Romney's 22% will be enough because so many other clowns will be splitting up the rest.


Of course this means that come general election time the vast majority of Republicans will have a candidate they aren't crazy about.

[PassingFair]

35. +1 nt

[yurbud]

20. Huntsman is Romney without the name recognition. The GOP will pick a psycho

as either the top of the ticket or for VP like they did in 2008, which will be a poison pill for swing voters and continue their decomposition as the corpse of a party kept twitching by the defibrillator of money from rich cranks like the Koch brothers.

[TBF]

22. He's Mormon too - that will not be lost on the Christians. nt

[AlinPA]

24. No way. He killed his chances by saying he believes in science and evolution.

re: your "lost on the majority of Republicans": For the last 3 years everything I have seen shows that the "majority of Republicans" are teabaggers, anti-immigrant, anti-science, intolerant, anti-government, Anti-every religion except Christian, Fundamentalist, right-wing conservatives. They have taken over. Otherwise, the crazies you mention would not be taking turns leading in the polls.

[applegrove]

26. He is the only one that really worries me. I hope you are wrong. Because he does sound sane and

could beat Obama.

[autorank]

27. Gave this some more thought.

The big problem with Romney is that he made a fortune in the turn around business. He'll argue that he saved jobs and others will point out
that job were lost. The point will remain that he's got a ton of money he made off of a lot of people without jobs. A rich corporatist is
not the image for a candidate.

Your deductive logic on Huntsman make sense but he's got the same problem. He's a wealthy guy with a history of getting that way, he inherited it. He
has come around to some of the crazy position of the right wing in a halfhearted way but the rank and file now he thinks they're goof balls.

I'm still having trouble seeing how he wins it.

I'm hoping that the Republican have a brokered convention. Now that would be interesting.

[fujiyama]

28. He's running out of time to pick up any momentum

Unless there's a sudden shift in the republican electorate, there isn't a chance in hell he's gonna be the nominee. Newt Gingrich has a better chance than Huntsman of getting the nomination at this point.

Romney is solidifying his status as the front runner, and it's more or less by default because Perry is simply collapsing and Cain has neither damage control skills or a real well organized campaign structure.

But the buzz I get from the nutty RWers at work, they really do prefer Cain. I get the feeling that race is trumped by ideology and that they don't care what race the person is - if they offer crazy tax policies favoring the incredibly rich and promise the usual crap about hating Muslims, being a "Christian" nation, and whatever else, they're down. Now, keep in mind these people aren't rich. But I regressive tax policies are a big hit among republicans. So, in that sense, I actually can see Cain possibly getting the nomination. I don't hear much about Romney. I did hear someone calling both him and Perry, "too establishment", which is probably the general view of most republicans. They may hold their nose and simply give it to him in the end. At this point, he'd be their smartest bet and the only one that could give Obama a real legitimate challenge. I think Perry scares many and he's a complete idiot. Cain is crazy. I believe Gingrich is one of the least likable politicians to ever held office. People have known him for almost twenty years and they don't really like what they see. And the rest are simply freaks (Bachman? Santorum?). Ron Paul is like their perpetual candidate. Never a dull moment with him around.

So the winner of '12, will be Obama or Romney.

[Douglas Carpenter]

29. no, a Mormon who believes in science, knows foreign policy and who supports gay civil unions

doesn't have a chance in a party that has already established being crazy and ignorant as a litmus test.

[Raine]

30. No, he's too sane and too intelligent for the repugs to ever support. nt

[quaker bill]

31. In 2016 maybe

The pattern is for them to nominate a pure rightwing nutjob this time, because they still believe they lost in 2008 because McCain compromised too much. They have to lose badly with a non-compromise conservative before they can begin to understand that the time for conservatism as passed.

The republican party is still in denial, they believe their stuff sells, even in the face of 9 percent approvals.

[Name removed]

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[rpannier]

33. If the Republikkans were smart, he'd be their choice

But, his "We're becoming the anti-science party." acknowledgement probably did him in.

[sofa king]

36. Conservatives aren't real good at recognizing "sanity."

Inability to recognize failings in themselves and the politicians they select, however, is a central support column of the conservative movement.

Think of how many totally unqualified candidates they've tossed up in the past thirty years: Reagan, Quayle, Shrub, Palin... all of them were manifestly unqualified in numerous ways. All of them have not a little bit of the crazy in them. And two of them were two-term Presidents.

In the Lewis Carroll world of conservative politics, the crazier candidates rise to the top because they are more ruthless, more willing to work outside of the law, more in touch with the idea that "perception" rather than substance is what propels one to the White House. Sixteen years of the Presidency out of the past thirty-one were held by insane illusionists who drove this nation into the dirt with their warped perspectives on how the world works.

Huntsman is crazy, too. You can't be a Republican in this day and age without being a little crazy, a little bit criminal, a little bit uncaring about others. He's all of those things, too. We just haven't seen it yet.