When one thought about the upcoming Republican Presidential race, there was some hope that someone moderate might actually show principle and be an alternative to the extreme right wing of the party.
And this author had hope for Jon Huntsman, the former Governor Of Utah and President Obama’s Ambassador to China, as a possible alternative who, were he to win the nomination, could give the President a real race for the White House, and were he to win, would be acceptable as the occupant of the White House.
Well, such illusions have now been destroyed, by Jon Huntsman himself! And this is very upsetting!
Huntsman has now changed his view on climate change, on the economic stimulus, and the health care issue, and has told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that were he in the House of Representatives, he would have voted for the Paul Ryan plan on Medicare, which would destroy Medicare as we know it in ten years.
The man may be charismatic, handsome, and appealing in an intellectual way, but he is a major disappointment by his abandonment of what he believed in.
His decision to move his unannounced campaign headquarters from Utah to Florida indicates he hopes to have an impact in the Sunshine State, but that indicates that he might even abandon his support of gay civil unions, as in Florida and many other states, the opposition to gay rights is still very strong in Republican primary voters, many of whom are evangelical Christians.
If Huntsman, who is Mormon, and must deal with that issue just as much as fellow Mormon Mitt Romney, hopes to gain evangelical backing, he will have to change his position on gay rights. Not that such a decision will guarantee evangelical support, but without such a switch, there is no hope at all of such backing!
So, disllusionment with Jon Huntsman just adds up to a sense of hopelessness that there is any chance of ANY Republican being mainstream in the traditions of the party in the age of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and EVEN Ronald Reagan!
WIth Mitt Romney backing away from “Romneycare”, and Jon Huntsman surrendering to conservative extremist views, the GOP is a shell of its old self, and gives progressives no hope that there could be any sense of acceptance of ANY Republican Presidential winner in 2012!
Wow! Huntsman in Florida? I wonder whether his office will be in Miami? Something tells me, No!
I felt the same way when I first heard Huntsman but thought…no way..this guy will not be able to continue his moderate agenda…not if he plans on getting GOP and corporate support. The GOP will not tolerate ANY moderate thought what so ever and ole Huntsman must have gotten the message just in the past week or so. He didn’t disappoint me nor am I disillusioned in the Republican party. I’ve gotten past that. It sure didn’t take him long to start doing the flip flop dance and start to show his true colors and worshipping at the shrine of Koch Brothers did it? In my opinion, he’s the worst kind of political hack….like so many others on the right…says what he thinks will get him elected but then votes against those who voted for him. Huntsman just let the cat out of the bag earlier than most.