Jon Huntsman’s exit from GOP race shows emerging futility to Mitt Romney challenge
Jon Huntsman’s decision to end his presidential candidacy has zero impact on the race for the 2012 Republican nomination, except to underscore the emerging futility of the campaigns embodied by the remaining challengers to frontrunner Mitt Romney.
The former Utah governor offered a moderate, respectful alternative to Romney, with Huntsman depicted by many as the most dangerous potential general election rival to President Obama because of his capacity to expand beyond the GOP’s conservative base and draw votes from middle America.
After all, Huntsman’s most recent job was as Obama’s ambassador to China, and the 51-year-old offered a unique blend of foreign policy experience and domestic track record as a former corporate and state CEO.
But his demeanor was too placid to break out of a pack of more prominent rivals, as Romney enjoyed establishment support, Ron Paul was propelled by loyal libertarian followers, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry drew attention to their Tea Party roots, Herman Cain sold his “9-9-9’’ tax plan, and Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum made a bid for fiscal and social conservative votes.
That fueled persistent questions about an independent campaign for the presidency, something Huntsman inexplicably would never completely rule out.
He got off to a lackluster start in New Hampshire, raising just $1,000 – two $500 donations – in the state by Sept. 30.
While he ended up earning his shoe-leather bona fides by holding over 160 events in New Hampshire, his daughters and their “jon2012girls’’ Twitter posts eclipsed his fame nationally.
And Huntsman’s most memorable debate moment may have come last weekend, when he displayed his ability to speak fluent Mandarin to put down Romney’s understanding of China.
This morning, in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where the two were slated to meet tonight for another debate, Huntsman will endorse Romney’s bid for the nomination.
The endorsement will hurt Romney more than it helps him, as Democrats are already highlighting the numerous and pointed criticisms Huntsman lobbed at the former Massachusetts governor during the primary campaign.
“You can’t be a perfectly lubricated weather vane on the important issues of the day,’’ Huntsman said of Romney during one memorable interview with CNN in October.
Last week, after Romney said he favored private insurance over government-run insurance because it gave him the ability to fire underperforming companies, Huntsman also joined the Democrats in seizing on the first half of the statement and ignoring its important qualifier.
“I will always put my country first,’’ said Huntsman. “It seems that Governor Romney believes in putting politics first. Governor Romney enjoys firing people; I enjoy creating jobs.’’
Huntsman’s about-face comes less than a week after a disappointing third-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, the contest he personally made the measuring stick of his candidacy.
Despite relocating his campaign headquarters from Florida to the Granite State, and practically claiming residence at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manchester, N.H., Huntsman was unable to put a dent in Romney or surpass Paul in the nation’s first primary.
With his New Hampshire loss coming a week after the Iowa caucuses he skipped, Huntsman no longer had any clear path to the GOP nomination.
Romney, a fellow Mormon, faces his own challenges with social conservatives in the South Carolina, which votes Saturday, and Perry, Gingrich, and Santorum had a better chance than Huntsman of rivaling the frontrunner for their votes.
After South Carolina, the contest moves to Florida – the same state Huntsman abandoned to take his shot in New Hampshire, and a place where Romney has been aggressively organizing and benefitting from millions in spending by a pro-Romney “super PAC.’’ It votes Jan. 31.
The coup de grace could come sometime next week, when former Florida Governor Jeb Bush reportedly will endorse Romney for president – the office which his brother George W. Bush was the last Republican to hold.
Even Nevada, a Mountain West state with a sizable Mormon population, offered no salvation for Huntsman in its Feb. 4 caucuses, after Romney targeted it with an organization that is now suffocating the remainder of the field.
Paul has earned just over 20 percent of the vote in the first two contests, but the Romney campaign views that as a ceiling to the Texas congressman’s support and believes the 78-year-old poses no substantive threat to the nomination.
Gingrich drew boos at a conservative forum in South Carolina over the weekend as he continued his attacks on Romney’s record leading Bain Capital LLC.
The former House speaker also was forced to urge a super PAC supporting his own campaign to correct mistakes in an anti-Romney documentary it was airing in the Palmetto State.
Santorum, meanwhile, is facing a withering assault from Romney not just in South Carolina but also Florida – the state the Romney campaign views as its political firewall should it suffer its first loss in South Carolina.
The former Pennsylvania senator was beaten in New Hampshire by Paul and Huntsman after a second-place finish in Iowa momentarily boosted his candidacy.
And Perry nearly ended his own campaign after finishing fifth in Iowa, but the Texas governor decided to wage a last stand for the nomination by concentrating on social and religious conservatives in South Carolina.
Paul, Gingrich, Santorum, and Perry have two more high-profile shots at Romney during the debate tonight in Myrtle Beach and another Thursday in Charleston, S.C., but a series of recent polls quantify the depth of their challenge.
Romney is leading them anywhere from 5 percent to 11 percent – a margin Huntsman concluded over the weekend he could not overcome.
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