Huntsman

Perhaps this billionaire’s son thought he could use his ability to self-fund, to push his way into the race by selling himself as Romney without the Romneycare, but he hasn’t caught fire, for a couple of reasons. First, the most noteworthy entry on his quite flimsy resume is as Obama’s employee. Obama makes sure to remind everyone that Huntsman was a member of Team Obama. Obama even got Jimmy Carter to praise Huntsman publicly: everyone knows how much the GOP base loves ol’ Jimmy. Other than the trip to China, his track record is extremely thin: a whole lot of people liked his performance as governor, but nobody can remember anything he actually did in office.

Also there is plenty for the hardcore conservatives to be suspicious of: he is still wobbly on many issues, he believes in climate change, he supported the stimulus and TARP; he wants a path to citizenship for immigrants, he thinks health care is a right, he flipflopped on insurance mandates and the stimulus; he attacked insurance companies and bragged about it, he flipped on cap and trade by claiming the economy has changed; he is okay with civil unions, and he rejected the Mexico border fence. And he admires Obama.

In 2009 Huntsman sounded as though he didn’t want to be a Republican at all: he said the Republican party was devoid of ideas, grasping for air, possessed of gratuitous partisanship, a very narrow party of angry people, with a strategy of obstruction and obfuscation, given to griping and complaining. He went to New Hampshire, a very moderate state by Republican standards, and said America must stop the partisan bickering and be civil if we are to solve our problems, the last thing Republicans want to hear in an election year; one of his staffers warned about the continued domination of the GOP by the far-right “Doctor No” wing of the party.

Shortly after the 2008 election, conservatives were cancelling Huntsman’s appearances because he was too moderate, and Rush Limbaugh called him the candidate of the liberals. Rightwing groups are already targeting him. He has been fighting to reestablish himself as a true-blue Republican, endorsing the Ryan plan to wipe out Medicare, but so far he is reluctant to do meet the true litmus test for Republicans: slamming Obama, his former boss.

Also his strong point, foreign policy, is likely to be of little interest in 2012.