Are we cats the only Democrats who think Jon Huntsman is attractive? It takes an effort for us to admit to this. We don't usually go for Mormons, you see.
But we're sorry to see Ambassador Huntsman leave his China post. We think he's served the Administration well, and we're amused by the insults hurled his way by Freepers who loathe him.
Amused — yes, but here's the thing. Huntsman is the one Republican who we think could give President Obama a run for his money next year. Here's how.
The election will be decided by independent voters. (Independents don't vote in midterms. So those on the right who think 2010 is a harbinger of a great victory in 2012 are drinking Kool-Aid.) Independents also don't like hateful, angry, spiteful, racist — i.e., teabagger — rhetoric. But that's what they're going to hear from the majority of the Republican Presidential contenders. Our prediction: It will drive them to Obama, just as it drove them to Obama in 2008.
Unless — unless the Republicans nominate Jon Hunstman. Democrats should fear a scenario in which all the outrageous and racist GOP haters collide in Iowa and South Carolina and destroy each other — while some smart candidate, like Huntsman, decides to stay above all the hot rhetoric, somehow manages to stay standing, and wins the nomination by being the last semi-rational person in the room.
Then, that person — and maybe that's Huntsman — pulls a Bush 2000, and runs a campaign in which he's painted as a nice, aw shucks, peanut-butter-and-jelly-loving, average guy, and not some pointy-headed intellectual elitist like President Gore or President Obama.
Why do we think this person might be Huntsman? The answer is money. A self-funder like Huntsman could execute a "let's-tone-down-the-rhetoric" strategy that aims past the GOP primaries and toward the general election, which would be the smart thing to do. Somebody who can't raise funds so easily — say, Daniels, Pawlenty, Pataki or Christie — wouldn't be able to survive.
Of course, we're comforted by the fact that the base of the Republican Party hates him. Keep it up, Freepers! In our view, you're sealing your own electoral doom.
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