jon huntsman
The Huntsman strategy has banked on the notion that a candidate gets a ticket out of Iowa if he never shows up in the first place. Tuesday evening, as the Iowans were caucusing, Huntsman held a town hall meeting in Peterborough, a town nestled in rugged terrain about an hour’s drive west from Manchester. The town hall was bathed in red, white and blue floodlights that gave the impression from a distance of bunting.
Inside, the former two-term Utah governor and ambassador to China faced what might have been his biggest and most energized crowd to date. He stood in the center of the hall, surrounded on all sides by people in folding chairs, with more people along the walls and a few dozen in the balcony. He had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. A good crowd energizes a candidate.
When a citizen asked Huntsman what his message would be to the winner of the Iowa caucuses, he paused for a moment, perhaps sensing that this could turn into the night’s sound bite.
“A message to the winner of the Iowa caucus,” he said. “It would be, ‘Welcome to New Hampshire, nobody cares.’”
Nationally, Huntsman barely fogs a mirror. The conventional wisdom says he’s too moderate for GOP primary voters. His service as President Obama’s envoy to China is viewed as a blot on the resume (in his stump speech he explains that he naturally served his country when called to do so).
In New Hampshire, though, his Santorumesque diligence – he said Tuesday night that he was holding his 150th public event in the state – has made him a familiar face and earned him third place in the latest statewide poll. (Romney has a commanding lead, followed by Ron Paul.) At the Peterborough event he boasted that he, and only he, has so far visited Lindy’s Diner in Keane, where every future president supposedly has stumped.
Huntsman is certainly attractive on the surface: He’s handsome, trim, with hair graying diplomatically. He’s got a gorgeous, sprawling family, including a trio of prepossessing 20-something daughters who have their own Web site, their own parody YouTube video and who showed up in Peterborough to help work the crowd.
Huntsman opened his stump speech by handing the microphone to his wife, Mary Kay, who gushed about her husband’s virtues: “He is common-sense reasonable.?.?.He is steady, he is consistent, he would never sell his soul for a vote.”
Inside, the former two-term Utah governor and ambassador to China faced what might have been his biggest and most energized crowd to date. He stood in the center of the hall, surrounded on all sides by people in folding chairs, with more people along the walls and a few dozen in the balcony. He had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. A good crowd energizes a candidate.
When a citizen asked Huntsman what his message would be to the winner of the Iowa caucuses, he paused for a moment, perhaps sensing that this could turn into the night’s sound bite.
“A message to the winner of the Iowa caucus,” he said. “It would be, ‘Welcome to New Hampshire, nobody cares.’”
Nationally, Huntsman barely fogs a mirror. The conventional wisdom says he’s too moderate for GOP primary voters. His service as President Obama’s envoy to China is viewed as a blot on the resume (in his stump speech he explains that he naturally served his country when called to do so).
In New Hampshire, though, his Santorumesque diligence – he said Tuesday night that he was holding his 150th public event in the state – has made him a familiar face and earned him third place in the latest statewide poll. (Romney has a commanding lead, followed by Ron Paul.) At the Peterborough event he boasted that he, and only he, has so far visited Lindy’s Diner in Keane, where every future president supposedly has stumped.
Huntsman is certainly attractive on the surface: He’s handsome, trim, with hair graying diplomatically. He’s got a gorgeous, sprawling family, including a trio of prepossessing 20-something daughters who have their own Web site, their own parody YouTube video and who showed up in Peterborough to help work the crowd.
Huntsman opened his stump speech by handing the microphone to his wife, Mary Kay, who gushed about her husband’s virtues: “He is common-sense reasonable.?.?.He is steady, he is consistent, he would never sell his soul for a vote.”
