Governor Asterisk Update: Republican Who Endorsed Romney Trashes GOP
Posted on | April 23, 2012 | 32 Comments
WITH HIS CONSTITUENTS: Jon Huntsman was surrounded by reporters
after Republican presidential debate in Spartanburg, S.C., Nov. 12, 2012
“Jon Huntsman quit the 2012 presidential campaign just as he ran it all along: Sowing confusion with contradictory messages. …
“Students of American political history who examine the peculiar course of Huntsman’s campaign will undoubtedly scratch their heads and ask themselves, ‘What the f–k was that all about?‘”
– Robert Stacy McCain, “A Fitting Finale to the Huntsman Flop,” Monday, Jan. 16, 2012
Let’s begin by noting that Jon Huntsman’s so-called “presidential campaign” burned through $7 million and finished $5.5 million in debt, having been “loaned” millions by his wealthy father.
What did $7 million buy him? Seventh place in Iowa (739 votes, 0.6%) and third place in New Hampshire (41,495 votes, 16.9%), the latter result in an open primary where exit polls showed Huntsman “handily won groups of voters satisfied with the Obama administration and opposed to the Tea Party,” as the New York Times reported. “Similarly, he won self-described Democrats by a nearly 20-point margin over Ron Paul.”
Keep that in mind as you read this report from Buzzfeed’s Zeke Miller:
Former Republican candidate Jon Huntsman took a battle axe to his own party, comparing it to China’s Communist Party and criticizing it’s standard bearer in a wide-ranging interview at the 92nd Street Y Sunday night.
Recounting his first experience on the presidential debate stage in Iowa last August, Huntsman says he was struck by the question “Is this the best we could do?”
Huntsman, the former Utah governor and once President Barack Obama’s Ambassador to China, expressed disappointment that the Republican Party disinvited him from a Florida fundraiser in March after he publicly called for a third party. . . .
“So I had to say I believe in science — and people on stage look at you quizzically as though you’re was an oddball,” Huntsman said, explaining why he was “toast” in Iowa. . . .
On foreign policy, Huntsman questioned his former Republican opponents’ hard-line positions on China. “I don’t know what world these people are living in,” he said, not naming Mitt Romney by name.
Dude. I was there at the press conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C., when Huntsman quit and endorsed Romney. What was the New York Times headline on the story about that press conference?
Huntsman Leaves Race
With Plea for Party Unity
That was Monday, Jan. 16, just six days after he called his third-place finish in New Hampshire a “ticket to ride” and barely five months after the Aug. 11 Fox News debate in Ames, Iowa, where I first dubbed him “Governor Asterisk.” From the outset, his candidacy lacked any plausible rationale. One might call Jon Huntsman a “useful idiot,” but this would immediately prompt the question, “What actual use did he serve?” He never had any “path to the nomination,” and his faux campaign existed only to garner glowing coverage from the liberal media, to hog up time in televised debates, and to enrich the ruthless campaign consultants who somehow managed to convince him he had a chance.
So here we are in April, three months after he endorsed Romney and pleaded for “party unity,” and Chumpsman is publicly trashing the GOP? Once more we must ask: “What the f–k was that all about?”
(Via Memeorandum.)
UPDATE: When the former sweetheart of the liberal media wants to claim his remarks have been taken out of context, he can always get a wet kiss from his MSNBC-BFFs at “Morning Joe”:
Suggestion for Mitt: Promise to pay off Huntsman’s campaign debt, with payment due Nov. 7, on condition that he disappear until then. America will thank you for keeping this douchebag off TV.
PREVIOUSLY:
- Jan. 16: A Fitting Finale to the Huntsman Flop
- Jan. 15: Good-Bye, Governor Asterisk
- Jan. 11: Philly Layover Musings: The Republican Party Is Depraved and Decadent
- Jan. 6: Two Excellent Arguments in Favor of a Jon Huntsman Presidency
- Dec. 15: Joe Scarborough’s Weird Man-Crush on Jon Huntsman: Get a Room, You Two!
- Oct. 14: Soon to Be a ‘Downfall’ Video Parody: Huntsman Campaign Goes Broke!
- Sept. 8: Gov. Benzene: Huntsman a ‘Green’ Phony
- Aug. 22: DNC Quotes Governor Asterisk

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