Jon Huntsman says that despite moderate image, he is a conservative at heart
Republican Jon Huntsman said today Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and other Democrats have spoken favorably of his presidential candidacy not because he lacks a conservative record, but because he has a moderate temperament and the other credentials they know the White House demands.
Jon HuntsmanEssdras M. Suarez/Globe Staff
“They’ve done the evaluation themselves, and they’ve said, `You know, of the field of candidates, who can actually do the job in a way that would bring dignity and results to this country … from a standpoint of bringing people together?’’’ Huntsman said during an interview with the Globe.
Nonetheless, Huntsman said his fellow Republicans should not be misled into thinking he is a moderate simply because of those opinions or his most recent job: working for President Obama as US ambassador to China.
He cited his opposition to abortion rights, support for gun ownership, his tax-cutting record while serving as governor of Utah, as well as – in a distinction with GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney – his work to expand health insurance coverage without mandated coverage.
“When people start sorting through this, they say, ‘He’s a good center-right governor.’ So, the moderate label that people like to affix to your forehead may be a little misleading from time-to-time,’’ he said.
Huntsman spoke hours before he held his 100th campaign event in New Hampshire, the first presidential primary state and the focus of his campaign in recent months.
He hopes to at least place a strong second to Romney in the state before carrying the battle to South Carolina. Over time, he is aiming to reach a spectrum of voters looking for a candidate who can not only win the nomination, but also the general election campaign against Obama.
“I think that will allow us to bridge the gap that exists between the centrist end of the party and the conservative end of the party,’’ Huntsman said of his ability to balance conservative views with a moderate image. “It’s got to be done at some point. Or you have independents who are going to kind of roam around and plant themselves somewhere else – and that will determine the outcome of the election.’’
Huntsman places in the single digits in many polls, and his decision to visit the Globe headquarters and other newsrooms across the city was part of a low-cost effort to reach residents of vote-rich southern New Hampshire – which is penetrated by the Boston media market.
The former governor dismissed his current poll standing, saying Romney’s stature has been based on name recognition and political flip-flops on issues such as abortion rights, while other candidates such as Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and, most recently, Herman Cain have gone through boomlets based on short-term rhetoric.
“If you’re not willing to light your hair on fire, you’re not going to spike, and, so, people spike and they fall. I don’t want that to happen to our campaign. I want a gradual, substantive rise in New Hampshire – the only market that matters,’’ he said.
Huntsman has been especially harsh in criticizing Romney, sparking talk of a feud between their two prominent Mormon families.
Huntsman labeled the former Massachusetts governor “unelectable’’ in an interview with NBC, a “perfectly lubricated weathervane’’ while speaking to CNN, and accused Romney of “pandering’’ yesterday during an interview with Bloomberg.
“It’s just a stream of changes on some of the key issues of the day that were brought about for whatever political convenience, and I think it’s transparent to a lot of people out there at a time when they’re looking for consistency and core political beliefs, core values around which they can at least assess and predict what you’re going to be going forward,’’ he said.
As to a feud, reportedly stemming from Romney beating out Huntsman for the job of leading the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, the Utahn said: “I love that story, because it really is a fabrication, 99 percent so. It makes for good drama, which then makes for good copy. But there is not much to it.’’
Instead, Huntsman labeled it “a bunch of hyperbole.’’
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