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Tag: jon hunstman

GOP Establishment And Tea Party Poised To Butt Heads This Fall

Republican moderate officeholders from Jon Huntsman version 2.0 — his campaign recently relaunched with a more aggressively independent and even progressive tone — to George Pataki are coming out of the woodwork, trying to gain traction in the 2012 race to unseat Barack Obama, who because of a lagging economy and cynical obstruction in Washington looks more vulnerable than ever. The only problem? Republican primary voters aren’t on board with the plan.

Things are looking fabulous for potential Republican challengers to the president right now. His every effort to stimulate the economy has either failed to keep up with epic unemployment or been blocked in Congress. His approval numbers are reaching all-time lows. Key demographic groups that propelled his 2008 rout of John McCain are souring on him, and though Labor will surely back his reelection, progressives threaten to be too depressed by a failure to change the culture in D.C. to be “fired up and ready to go” when they need to be. As reputed pollster Tom Jensen put it:

Only 48% of Democrats on our most recent national survey said they were ‘very excited’ about voting in 2012. On the survey before that the figure was 49%. Those last two polls are the only times all year the ‘very excited’ number has dipped below 50%.

In 13 polls before August the average level of Democrats ‘very excited’ about voting next year had averaged 57%. It had been as high as 65% and only twice had the number even dipped below 55%.

It had seemed earlier in the year like Democrats had overcome the ‘enthusiasm gap’ that caused so much of their trouble in last year’s elections. But now 54% of Republicans say they’re ‘very excited’ about casting their ballots next year, indicating that the problem may be back.

The debt deal really does appear to have demoralized the base, and the weird thing about it is that this is one issue where if Obama had done what folks on the left wanted him to do, he also would have had the support of independents. The deal has proven to be a complete flop in swing states where we’ve polled it like Colorado, North Carolina, and Ohio. And in every single one of those states a majority of voters overall, as well as a majority of independents, think new taxes are going to be needed to solve the deficit problem.

So why are Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann dominating the field — and the conversation? The Republican establishment is making known it doesn’t want to waste an opportunity to roll back the most progressive presidency in decades. After all, it may not have been clear six months ago that Republicans would have a solid shot to knock out Barack Obama, but it surely is now.

But it’s that very tension we can expect to play out this fall as opinions harden and the Iowa caucuses approach — an establishment desperate to put a credible, sensible challenger forward to take out their enemy, and a Tea Party equally determined not to waste its energy and activism on a Mitt Romney — or even worse, a Jon Huntsman.

Follow Matt Taylor on Twitter @matthewt_ny

LDS Decides Best Defense Is Offense

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints isn’t political, but its candidates shouldn’t be denied office for being who they are, either, and the group is mounting a PR push to make their case:

“We not only don’t want to cross the line” between religion and politics, Michael Purdy, director of the church’s media relations office, said in an interview at church headquarters here. “We don’t want to go anywhere near the line.”

And that means being actively apolitical. In contrast to its relatively quiescent approach in 2008 when Mr. Romney ran for president, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is going on the offensive, aiming to swiftly counter anti-Mormon political arguments and push back against what it considers unfair portrayals of the faith.

“We now have two Latter Day Saints running, and the potential for misunderstanding or missteps is therefore twice what it was before,” Michael Otterson, the LDS’s managing director for public affairs, said. Earlier this month, Mr. Otterson used a blog post to challenge opponents who label the LDS a “cult”—even before that charge had surfaced.

Romney himself made a speech during his last run on religion described by the chattering class as a solid attempt at mimicking JFK’s pitch to Protestant ministers in 1960, arguing he shouldn’t be denied office because of his faith or a perceived allegiance to a church. Coupled with the public ad campaign — New York City taxi cabs are a prominent example — arguing Mormons are just like everyone else, this marks an overt campaign to legitimize the prospect of an LDS president, regardless of his political affiliation (which, Harry Reid notwithstanding, will almost inevitably be Republican).

Huntsman As Nixon Republican

We all know Jon Huntsman is an unorthodox Republican, a wealthy moderate who was quite popular as governor of Utah but has since seen his numbers there drop. He simply doesn’t have the charisma or aggressive conservatism that Tea Party types crave. And buried in the latest New York are some of the best nuggets of evidence yet that he’s more comfortable in the offices of Esquire than Reason:

Huntsman’s uneasiness with affixing a conservative label to himself has been evident from the start. On his first trip to New Hampshire, in late May, he insisted instead on the achingly anodyne “pragmatic ­problem-solver.” A month later, when he visited New York on a fund-raising swing, I asked who his political heroes were. ­“Reagan was certainly part of that,” Huntsman said, though he paraphrased Dutch’s ringing anti-statism as a commitment to “making sure government never exceeds boundaries and never gets out of control from a cost standpoint.” He also mentioned Nixon: “I mean, here’s a guy who created the EPA.”

Another possibility is that, in trying to walk a thin line between conservatism and moderation, Huntsman finds himself tangled up in his shoelaces. In our meeting at his house, I asked about a comment he’d made in 2008 warning the GOP about being perceived as “anti-science” regarding climate change. “All I’m saying is, we ought to show a little respect for science generally,” he answered. So you believe the planet is getting hotter? “I didn’t say that.” I’m asking you. “It’s not what I believe. I read science. Established bodies of scientists have spoken out … and I respect what [they] have to say.” You respect it, or you ? “I’m not here to talk about that,” he said, sounding slightly flustered, but then found his footing. “I respect it, and I happen to believe what they’ve concluded.” Phew.

Huntsman Announces Candidacy to Friends, Family, Sean Hannity

When Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman formally announced that he was running for president this morning, he did so from the same spot where Ronald Reagan kicked off his campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1980.

In the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, he hoped the symbolism–this is where Reagan, conservative hero, also started–would be enough to for a man who supports civil unions and recently served as Obama’s Ambassador to China to prove to Republican primary voters that he was one of them.

The speech was almost painfully optimistic. He avoided direct personal digs at Obama, effusively praising his character and saying that his campaign will be about “who will be the better president, not who’s the better American.”

It seemed like a deliberate jab at Republican front-runner Mitt Romney’s complaint that Obama gets his inspiration from the “capitals of Europe.” The tiny crowd of journalists, undecided northeast College Republicans, and Wall Street-types cheered.

He kept his criticism vague and indirect. “We can and will own the future,” he said at one point, a reference to Obama’s State of the Union refrain that his policies would help America “Win the Future.”

His tone was different from that of the other candidates in that it did not reflect the anger of the Tea Party, but Huntsman made it very clear he was still a Republican: his first interview was just steps from the podium with Fox News television host and GOP booster Sean Hannity, who interrogated him about an appreciative hand-written note he gave to Obama in 2009 shortly before leaving for Beijing.

Huntsman told Hannity that Obama “had failed in a number of ways.” He finished doling out his slice of conservative red meat, then left for a quick trip to New Hampshire. He’ll be returning tonight, for a fundraiser at an undisclosed location in Manhattan.