I'm Officially Scare to Death...

There's nothing special about him; he has no celebrity appeal. That's just the way it is now. And while there are a lot of things to blame, the constant barrage of criticism levied at Bill Clinton and George W. Bush--plus the ongoing Congressional scandals--has tilted the field substantially. In the age of the 24-hours news cycle, reality TV, and with celebrity worship at an all time high, candidates aren't pulling ahead because of their message. I mean, let's be honest: Obama wasn't a popular politician; he was a popular celebrity. I guarantee more than half the people who voted for him in 2008 did so for 30 different reasons on a list above his particular political persuasions. We need something to latch onto as a culture with high profile politicians. Example: If we're only going on intellect, values, experience, and what's best for a party (in terms of primaries), Clinton bested Obama in every conceivable category. Well, almost every category. Celebrity was the X factor. That's what Huntsman doesn't have. Romney has it for a few reasons, some of which are more ironic than anything. He has the proverbial debonair looks. He's controversial as a former governor and supposedly cutthroat businessman. He speaks well (that has always attracted people). And, above all, he's been plastered in our faces enough to have infinitely more recognition. In terms of being fearful, I think we're all in for a huge surprise should Obama win another term. Hypothetically, we're off the cliff entirely should this record spending and debt even continue at quarter pace for four more years. There is just no way Obama can stop it. Even if he wanted to, which we all know he doesn't, no one is going to cooperate with him. He has become an ineffective leader. So that's another reason Mitt is more popular than Hunstman -- people see Romney and see someone who has a better shot at defeating Obama.

Jon Huntsman never really got his name out there. He failed in the PR department and failed to make an impression on the debates. He didn't even get the distinguish spot of being number one for a while. I don't think I remember even seeing him on Fox News. What he needed was at least one viral video (good or not), a innovative tax plan, a strange view on foreign policy, or something that made him stand out from the crowd. Instead, he just blended in to the background.

I didn't think he had a problem, I just wasn't enthusiastic about his ideas. His stance on prohibition isn't clear, I don't like that he supports the idea of a "right to life" act. While he's not for nation building, he doesn't seem to have a problem with using our troops as "peace police" in other parts of the world. I'm not sure I care for that. I like him better than Perry, Gingrich, and Romney, but he's not my first pick - or my second.

I can see why you would like Huntsman - he was the only candidate in the race that liberals liked. He appeared less threatening because he seems the least Republican of anyone, he was the Obama-esque candidate. But if he was the candidate who appealed to anyone other than liberals, he would have done better. The true swing vote here is the independent vote and they are not supporting Obama on the whole so they are more likely to be voting in Republican primaries. The independents are more likely to support Paul in these primaries. The main reason is that Ron Paul seems to them to be the least like Obama. That's what people want more than anything - Not Obama. Romney is perceived as the most likely to defeat Obama and that is why the pragmatists keep him in the lead. Huntsman's problem is that he doesn't seem like the Not Obama candidate. And anything Not Obama scares liberals. Luckily, only 19% of Americans consider themselves to be liberals. Anyone scared of real American values should realize that they are in the minority. They only seem to be the majority because the majority of the media is made up of those in the 19%. America is already scared, scared of what is happening to their country and what another four years of the Obama agenda will do to it.

As an outside observer I agree with you about the Republican candidates. But I didn't like so much Huntsman. He has served in the Obama Administration and finally declared himself against him - I find this confusing. He is not wealthy, the money belong to his father. The rich man is Romney and it seems that he receives a lot of money from the super PACs that support him. But why do people vote for any one of this pack? Until now I haven't heard one compelling message, even one useful idea for the government of the country. They use their campaign only to attack each other. Most of them want to eliminate Romney and he pours accusations against Obama. I wonder how people assess this conduct.

Well Annie, from a proud liberal ... number one, he worked for President Obama, number two, intellect ... plus a mormon!! I think what really takes their biscuit (just heard someone say that) is the pure hatred for the president ... how dare he deploy for "Obama" !

Between Huntsman and Romney, Romney was better known. A lot of people never heard Huntsman's take on things. Also, it's statistically proven that the better looking people are most often elected, at least as presidents. Not always, but often. I know... it's rather telling of our society. Romney has made a name for himself that almost everyone recognizes even if they don't know much about him and people go for that which is familiar for the most part.

Annie, I usually disagree with you on politics...though not this time for sure! I liked Huntsman a lot and was sorry to see him go. Certainly I don't trust (or like for that matter) Romney or Newt! And no it does not have to do with religion, before anyone decides to say it does! Sorry, had to put that in there, LOL. But still...We really don't have a very good choice for the GOP candidate, especially if the media is going to keep playing favorites. I was very sorry to see Huntsman go, and like you, I am not sure why he did!

Well Annie, he always ranked third on my list behind Paul and Johnson eventually moving up to second when Johnson dropped out and decided to run with the Libertarian party. I agree that his experience is solid and I think it's a very positive thing that he's been a governor which is the most similar job to president, and a diplomat who has worked with both administrations showing that party politics aren't an obstacle for him. That said, two big things stopped him. 1. Zingers. He just didn't have any. Even Gary Johnson had that great line of "My next door neighbors two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this administration." Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich were full of good zingers that earned each man his 15 minutes of fame.John Huntsman just never had anything solid in the debates to separate himself. You might think that getting 1 question and 1 follow-up per debate would be enough, but apparently not for him. 2. The media. Every front-runner we've had, as I told you, has been hand-picked by the media. Romney was the default thanks to 2008. Had Huckabee run it might have been him. John Huntsman was one of only 3 candidates who was never annointed a front-runner by the media. They practically shut him out of the debates giving him 2 questions per debate. Only Ron Paul got less unless you count Gary Johnson who they stopped inviting to debates even though he polled higher than Santorum, Huntsman, and occasionally Gingrich and Bachmann after the first two debates. I don't think working for the Obama administration hurt him. It would have been used against him if he became flavor of the week, but that never happened. Same thing about the Chinese. It would have only been an issue if he were flavor of the week. You really shouldn't be scared though. It seems like Romney has it pretty well locked up and he's just another Obama with better hair and a game-show host persona. Very little will change if he gets elected aside from the veto threats and "I WON" crap that Obama was pulling. I think he'll largely be a rubber stamp for whatever legislation gets passed and won't be nearly as combative with democrats as Obama has with republicans.

For me it was a number of things. His support for NDAA, supports provisions in the patriot act and such. Although he wasn't salivating like Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Perry to jump in to a war with Iran, his position on a pre-emptive strike if they came close to developing a nuke was close enough for me. He is Obama lite. All set with that thanks.

Huntsman is a good man but did not have the organization and money to mount a serious campaign for the GOP nomination. Romney's organization goes back to 2008 and has been active since. His last official position was ambassador to China and he lacked a political constituency and name recognition. As intelligent as he appeared in the debates he came across as bland and did not make comments to appeal to the firebrands and yahoos of the far Republican right. He was also the only candidate who did not make a pledge to Grover Norquist never to support tax increases under any circumstances, thus dooming his candidacy from the start by assuring he would never receive the financial backing necessary to win the nomination. It's a shame that a principled man like him is taboo in national Republican politics.

I think it was just that Huntsman (in my opinion) is one of the very few honest Republicans left. One who cares more about the country than money and power. Plus he did not like to call Obama a Socialistic, Communist, Marxist, Nazi, from Kenya who is anti-business, hates old people, white people, rich people, and is Muslim. Wow, I have been keeping up with politics the last few years and this has been the Republicans main message about our countries first black President. Nice message to send to our kids. Sorry Huntsman, putting the country first. What were you thinking? Don't you know it is party first, Rich people second, then the country.

The reason is that the real right wingers want Romney to be the guy. They think he has a good chance of beating Obama. In my opinion, none of them have a chance of beating Obama. None of the republican candidates are any good. None of them have what it takes to make positive changes in this sorry country. They just want to bring things back the the old days. Those days are over and we do have to move forward. We need to make a difference. Every other country is slowly going to surpass us on every level. We lost the reins and the number one spot. It will take many years to become number one again.

I think it's because the right is running the same campaign now as the left did in 04 except instead of the anyone but Bush campaign it's the anyone but Obama campaign. So instead of putting up a candidate with appeal to both parties they are running a candidate too far left just because they assume the rest of the country hates Obama as much as they do. Hence they fall into the trap that thinking who ever they put up against Obama will win, which is never the case in a presidential race. I was for Obama in 08, this year I'm so unsure of him that I might have considered voting for a MODERATE Republican, they key however, is moderate, which none of the candidates are. While I might be dissatisfied with some of Obama's decisions these past 4 years, there's a lot I'm happy with, which is far better than I would expect from any of the extreme left candidates bidding for front runner this year. No president fully represents my interests, but the left has a lot less appeal on most issues.

Three things have worked against John Huntsman in this campaign. The first (and probably most important), he never really made his message clear to the voters. He also accepted an appointment by Barrack Obama (as Ambassador to China). Lastly, the only real support he ever enjoyed was from Democrats (such as yourself) who like him, but would never vote for him anyway.

The main reason is that you , a thoughtful Democrat could be ok with him as president is why he didn't do so well. He isn't part of the tea party , therefore he is Way too liberal . And he made sense when he speaks and leaves out the rest of the party.It seems to be a Republican candidate you need a deep, blind, hatred of Obama and a promise to Never , Ever raise taxes. If you sound meaningful on any other topic , they will not listen to you.

I agree with you, although I can’t really say that I was a Huntsman fan, because I didn’t know a whole lot about him. I started following the election coverage only recently, but I have to say that we should be really concerned about the upcoming election. We certainly need to get Obama OUT of office, and as long as that happens, the American voters will have done the job they really need to do in this election. However, when Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are the best candidates the Republican Party has to offer, we should certainly be worried. While either of these choices would be better for our country than Obama, neither of them are really worth voting for…

that is how politic works, you act today for the sake of tomorrow, i think his make was deploy for president Obama. and seriously it would take a very smart one to win president Obama, for the fact that many things happened on his administration that every body was waiting for.

Not to disrespect on you and your beliefs on politics but why would you want huntsman in the first place? He endorses Mitt Romney who first of all has a bad record, he wants to spend more money, he supports expensive wars, he doesn't think we should negotiate with Iran (therefore possibly causing WW3) those are just a few things. Just wanted to get that out there and in the open. I am personally a Ron Paul supporter, but that isn't your question. Huntsman never really seemed to have gotten anywhere from the beginning although I havent been following him as closely because he hasn't gotten much coverage. I think Huntsman may have been on the good side in the beginning but he changed. Thats the best answer I can give you without asking the man himself. He wasn't getting votes and he was way down in the polls. Also, Ron Paul would abolish income taxes entirely and the IRS would be very limited if it even existed at all under the Paul administration. There is only one old man between a future for America or its total collapse lets just hope we dont let fox, cnn, and other corporate media smear him out of the race.