It seems that a presidential candidate who launched his campaign without criticizing President Barack Obama and aims to run a let’s-get-serious campaign would be more at home on the “No Labels†line than running under the Republican banner.
But Jon Huntsman, who formally began his bid Tuesday testifying to the virtues of civility, is betting that GOP voters will ultimately want to defeat Obama more than just club him upside the head.
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It’s the central assumption of Huntsman’s candidacy: electability will trump purity.
No, Huntsman is not going to drop the rhetorical daisy-cutters on the president in a way that will make the pulses of party activists quicken. And, no, he’s not a down-the-line conservative on every issue.
“What’s going to unite Republican voters in South Carolina is: Who do they think can win in November, who can beat Obama,†said Richard Quinn, Huntsman’s Palmetto State strategist. “They’re sophisticated enough to know that you don’t beat Obama by appealing to a very small base of folks who just hate the guy.â€
Past GOP nominees haven’t met the right-wing litmus test and some even sought to run general election-style campaigns in party primaries.
George W. Bush and John McCain, at various times, both come to mind.
Huntsman’s challenge, however, is that he lacks some of the qualities that made the apostasies of Bush and McCain tolerable among Republican primary voters. Bush talked of his personal faith in Jesus Christ and came from a storied GOP family. McCain was known as a war hero before he became a politician and had been hawk in good standing for decades. Huntsman is a Mormon who talks of his faith as his “heritage,†is virtually unknown to most Republican activists and lacks the military credentials that could ameliorate his deviations from party orthodoxy.
Oh, and he just got through working in the Obama administration.
“In the Republican Party, it’s going to be a hard sell to nominate a candidate to go up against Obama who worked for Obama,†said former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a Mitt Romney supporter in 2008 who hasn’t endorsed in this campaign.
Todd Harris, a GOP ad man who is not working in the presidential contest, said Huntsman could find a difficult path in attempting to be the Serious Candidate.
“Huntsman would be the anti-Trump,†said Harris, alluding to the New York developer-cum-publicity hound. “Trump took off with the base because he never hesitated to hit Obama and sometimes to fight a little dirty. The base loved that. By all accounts, Huntsman wants to run a more cerebral campaign that focuses on policies as opposed to personalities. That can be tough in a crowded primary field that doesn’t typically reward nuance.â€
But Huntsman ought not be immediately written off as a latter-day Bruce Babbitt, a presidential hopeful who makes centrist elites weak in the knees but actual primary voters yawn.
First, to say that the Republican primary campaign is “unsettled†is an understatement. It’s completely up in the air, with Romney a highly vulnerable frontrunner, a group of flawed challengers and some potentially formidable candidates still on the sidelines.
Given these conditions, a candidate like Huntsman who is articulate, engaging, has a team of campaign veterans and the ability to tap into his personal wealth to stay afloat could emerge as a contender.
“One thing that potentially enables him to do this is that he can self-fund,†noted Harris. “Candidates who have to rely on fundraising have to hit hard to generate enthusiasm with small-dollar donors. But if he can self-fund then there’s a path.â€
And then there is New Hampshire.
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