Harry Reid rises above partisan politics and declares Jon Huntsman to be his preferred choice for the GOP nomination. The fact that Reid’s son was chosen by Huntsman to be on Utah’s Board of Regents and that Huntsman’s family contributed nearly $25,000 to Reid’s reelection campaign was not a consideration in his choice of Huntsman.
Reid said on Tuesday, “If I had a choice in that race, I’d choose Huntsman over Romney.”
Huntsman’s family had a choice in the 2008 elections and they chose Reid and the Democratic Party. The Huntsman family are long time supporters of Reid and the Democrat Party and the donations paid off when Jon Huntsman was chosen by President Obama as his ambassador to China.
But his parents and a couple of his brothers (Peter, James) and some in-laws have. And his Dad even helped the Nevada Democratic Party ($5,000) in 2008. I’m told Reid has known the senior Huntsman since the 1990s and is friendly with the son, too.
Here’s a list of the donations from the GOP candidate’s family to Reid (with help from CQ MoneyLine):
Jon Huntsman, Sr., Karen Huntsman $9,600 (2/4/09)
Peter, Brynn Huntsman $9,600 (12/31/09)
James, Marianne Huntsman $4,600 (11/30/09)
Jon Huntsman, Sr. $2,000 (11/2/04)
UPDATE: Huntsman responded on twitter to this report: “I’ve never donated a dime to @HarryReid and wouldn’t. My record in Utah balancing budgets very different from his.”
His relatives are not concerned with Reid’s budget balancing capabilities.
Jon Huntsman announced his bid for the GOP nomination along with his loyalty and love for Barrack Obama in front of the Statue of Liberty in a style meant to invoke Reagan’s announcement of his candidacy against President Carter.
Huntsman says of President Obama, “He and I have a difference of opinion on how to help the country we both love.”
While Huntsman has an understandable affection for Obama: Reagan had no such affection or love for Carter. From Reagan’s uncivil speech in front of the Statue of Liberty, denouncing Carter’s handling of the economy:
REAGAN: The Carter record is a litany of despair, of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten. His answer to all this misery? He tries to tell us that we’re only in a recession, not a depression — as if definitions — words — relieve our suffering. Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well, if it’s a definition he wants, I’ll give him one: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his!
Huntsman, if he even has visions of victory, wants a civil debate and for the candidates to love each other regardless of the results.
HUNTSMAN: — it concerns me that civility, humanity, and respect are sometimes lost in our interactions as Americans. Our political debates today are corrosive and not reflective of the belief that Abe Lincoln espoused. I don’t think you need to run down someone’s reputation in order to run for the office of president. I respect the President of the United States. He and I have a difference of opinion on how to help a country we both love, but the question each of us wants the voters to answer is “Who will be the better president?” not who’s the better American.
The Propaganda pundits of Obama’s State controlled media are in euphoria over the possibility of Huntsman’s nomination and his choice of Reagan’s announcement location for the announcement of his candidacy.
WILLIE GEIST: Jon Huntsman set today to do his best Ronald Reagan impression.
CAROL COSTELLO: Jon Huntsman channeling Ronald Reagan.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: …the same spot Ronald Reagan kicked off his 1980 general e…election campaign.
F. CHUCK TODD: …wants to channel Ronald Reagan themes of American renewal.
JOHN HARRIS: Obviously an attempt to invoke the imagery of Ronald Reagan.
JIM ACOSTA: This is the spot where Ronald Reagan announced his presidential bid in 1980.
JOHN HEILEMANN: Invoking the memory of the sainted Ronald Reagan.
WILLIAM KRISTOL: Ronald Reagan. That’s what they’re hoping to evoke.
The NYT reveals more about this candidate of whom only 35% of Republicans have heard of and only 30% of those say they would vote for in a more realistic approach for the Democratic choice for the Republican nomination.
At that same news conference, he also refused, bizarrely, to describe himself as a conservative. Huntsman said he didn’t like political labels, but if he had to pick one, he considered himself a “pragmatic problem-solver.”
MultimediaThere are two ways to look at all this, depending on your perception of what’s happening in the Republican Party. A lot of political handicappers — particularly those on the left, who tend to view the Republican base as monolithic and somewhat medieval — doubt that Huntsman can even win enough delegates to earn himself a decent speaking slot at the convention. My colleague Nate Silver, who blogs his statistical analysis for The Times, has argued that Huntsman has no more than a remote chance of scoring the nomination. Skeptics point out that not only did Huntsman go to work for a Democratic president, but he also sent warm letters to that president, calling him a “remarkable leader.” Huntsman believes in the science of climate change, and he favors civil unions for gay couples and leniency for the children of illegal immigrants.
Obviously, the Democrats are ecstatic over the possibility of the Republicans running a Liberal Lite against Obama in a half hearted campaign that would never be so bold to mention the utter failure and devastation that Obama’s Experiment in Marxism has wreaked on America, but the question remains , are we going to take Huntsman’s campaign seriously?
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A comparison between Reagan & Huntsman is a comparison of substance and shadow.
Huntsman is a stalking horse (apologies to you Skook) for his last employer.
I never thought I’d say this but I think I dislike Huntsman more than Barry. Guy gives me the creeps and this is before the DemonKraps gave him a glowing endorsement.
CAIN would beat him just in one speech
The Republican Leadership Conference had a straw poll.
Paul 612
Huntsman 382
Bachmann 191
Cain 104
Romney 74
Gingrich 69
Palin 41
Santorum 30
Pawlenty 18
Johnson 10
Roemer 9
McCotter 2
Was Team Huntsman laying out some cash to fly people in and vote for Jon?
I’m fairly up on political news, but if Republicans favored Huntsman more than everybody else, why hadn’t I heard a word about him?
Nan, a Non-Conservative, anti-TEA Party Candidate that is the darling of the Democrat Party and an admirer of Obama, it is amazing he has enough nerve to even suggest the possibility, but with Democrat strategy and Soros money, you can elect an unknown, incompetent, buffoonish Marxist. Securing the Republican nomination to ensure the reelection of Obama might be easy compared to elevating Obama to the presidency. I will make my only political prediction: if Huntsman wins the nomination, the Republican Party will no longer exist as a political party.
Call me crazy, but I think Huntsman is in the race purely for the benefit of Romney. How else do you get the majority of Republican voters to vote for Romney, who is anything but conservative, unless you put the comparison up between Romney and Huntsman, in which case Romney looks promising then. Now, whether or not it was Romney, or some liberals, who is behind it is anyone’s guess.
I vote neither of them, and will stick with the women, or Mr. Cain.
that’s what they learned from the left and tell it as it is, check my back, and
I’ll check your back, and we will s..w the REPUBLICANS,
If it look like a rat, it must be a rabbit
When pundits on Fox News called him “Reganesque” I about puked.
Sean Hannity was even talking glowingly of him. What is it with these people?? Thank God Mark Levin hasn’t been fooled by Huntsman.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Obama was behind Huntsman’s entry into the race…
It appears that the Huntsman family (Jon Jr included) is very compromising in business & politics. They fall either on the far right of democratic party or far left of republican party. The fact that CEO Peter voted for and supports Obama scares me. The fact that the whole fam damily is in bed with Harry Reid scares me.
Could they be closet conservatives who pander all over the place? Pander Yes, Conservative No.
John McCain = Jon Huntsman?
HUNTS, IT CONCERN HIM of the lost of civility,
because he doesn’see anything wrong with the GOVERNMENT,
WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT WOULD A MENTALY BLIND PERSON BE,
DANGEROUSLY ABLE TO STUMBLE ON HIS CRUTCH
That was an insult to compare Huntsman to old Ronnie! JH has about as much charisma as a snail. Where do they find these guys? At the morgue? He reminded us of Mr. Rogers. But hell, who am I? We all laughed when we first heard on Peanut Jimmy. The jokes flew every which way. But in the end, the joke was on us. Go figure.
Perhaps the idea by establishment Republicans is to make Romney appear like a conservative in comparison with Huntsman. I simply can not understand why some of the Fox Pundits seem to support leftist Republican candidates while degrading conservative ones. “Fair and balanced” my A**.
Come to think of it, sure! let’s have even more “progressive” establishment candidates, so that they will have to share the “progressive” GOP votes.
@Ditto: Fox pundits, yes; but Hannity rarely fawns over the RINOs. Of course that is why I much prefer Mark Levin any day! He tells it like it is and you always know where you stand with him and where he stands on the issues.
@anticsrocks:
I much prefer Levin as well, particularly when he’s telling some moronic lib/prog to , “GET OFF MY PHONE!”
@Ditto:
See my post #6. I’d say that the thought is definitely out there about Huntsman being there only for the benefit of Romney.
I’ll repeat, though, I vote neither of them, and will stick with the women, and/or Mr. Cain.
@johngalt
Caught post #6. The thing is Romney is in no way a conservative, and I think that most Republicans are fully aware of that (with the possible exception of FOX pundit Bill O’Rielly, who is clearly not conservative, but an establishment Republican). It also seems to me that the FOX network wants to sell us another “McCain pseudo-moderate” when what we need is a real bonafide Conservative to undo the damage done. I think that Huntsman is more likely to draw “progressive” votes away from Romney than to lead “conservative votes to him. I also think that the next GOP debate needs to be an honest to god debate and not the GOP social club meeting the CNN was.
Ditto, what came to my mind, is that they may use the tactic to spread the VOTERS,
that would at the end confuse them so much to vote the DEM BACK,
anticsrocks, hj,
Is FOX leaning on their share holder from ARAB COUNTRYS ‘s opinions a bit
faster than they want to show, concerning the 2012 election,
maybe they had a meeting about reminding them who pay their salary.
bye
@Ditto:
Possibly, however, with a drawn down field, which will eventually happen, the presented choice, by the media, might just well be an “extreme” conservative in Bachmann or Cain, a liberal candidate in Huntsman, and a “moderate conservative” in Romney. Now, knowing the stupidity of many of the voters out there, and the ability of the MSM to reach them, the MSM will quietly push the idea that Romney is the best choice we have, and the intelligent voters will be overshadowed by the gullible voters. Result? Romney wins.
The best thing that can happen is that instead of letting Romney alone, take the fight to him immediately and marginalize him as much as possible, early, so that he is less of a factor in the actual primaries.
Ditto When the Right says Fox isn’t fair and balanced you got serious problems.
JohnG. Do you honestly believe Cain or Bachmann can beat Romney in the primaries?
@rich wheeler:
In a fairly reported contest, and with no extra-curriculars at the primary voting booth, yes I do. Romney is hardly a ‘conservative’, and the fact that the establishment GOP supports him is worrisome. You know my principles, and what I stand for, and none of it can even remotely be reconciled with Romney’s record.
@Rich
This is not an observation of the whole network in general, but only on a part of it. For example, Shepard Smith is usually fair and balanced when it comes to his news reporting, except when it comes to issues of gun control which Smith seems to support.
Some of the pundits at FOX clearly are not being “fair and balanced” in regards to the Republican primary candidates. They can get away with it because they are “commentators”, not reporters. O’Reilly claims that he is only telling things the way they are, however this type of commentary has been the SOP (standard operating procedure) in all MSM news outlets, for steering politically lazy or time-strapped people towards certain candidates and away from others. That is what makes the internet so much more important today’s age of media sponsored politics.
@johngalt
I agree with that assessment. Which makes it even more important for there to be real debates where the people can form a better picture of the candidates. It is also why conservatives need to select and file up behind and support a single Conservative candidate.
John The question of whether Romney meets YOUR tests has little to do with the viability of a Bachmann or Cain candidacy.Wouldn’t you agree.
“fairly reported,extra curricular activities at voting booths” sounds like you are already making excuses.John,this is American politics.
@rich wheeler:
My comment regarding that was meant to show, about myself, that I believe Bachmann or Cain is a viable candidate. I am not alone, either. A true conservative will not vote for Romney in the primary, even if they might bite the bullet for him in the general. The question, then, becomes one of numbers, as in, how do the numbers of informed, conservative voters compare to those who only generally identify with the Republican party, and are susceptible to being swayed by the media.
Not excuses, Rich, but explanations. Unfortunately, you are right that this is American politics as we know it today. It is not beyond the realm of possibilities, particularly given how McCain was nominated in 2008, that influences beyond the internal conservative voting bloc will determine the Republican nominee. In my opinion, Obama will be hoping for a Romney or Huntsman as the nominee, as they would tend to temper the enthusiasm to see Obama defeated. My opinion, of course.
@Rich
The “viability” of all candidates should mainly be decided by the voters on election day, (or by the individual’s campaign depending on voter reaction). not by the MSM who’s job is to report news, not manipulate voters.
@ilovebeeswarzone: Interesting thought, beezy. We shall see.
@Ditto: I agree that Romney is not a conservative, but RE: the recent GOP CNN debate, I would take ANY of the Republicans on stage over Obama. Even Ron Paul, who fiscally is a genius but his foreign policy is just crazy.
@Antirocks
I agree that Obama must not be re-elected. However, we currently need to focus on the Republican primary and try to get a conservative to run against Obama.
It is completely transparent to me, that the real reason people on the left are trying to goad Sarah Palin into running is so that she will take votes away from other conservative candidates.
@Ditto: Make no mistake, I too want a true Conservative – with a capital “C” – to win the GOP nomination. I truly believe that a conservative in the vein of Reagan is what this country needs. The electorate is ripe to turn to a leader who is concise, articulate, with broad based appeal, and most importantly who stays true to our Founders’ conservative roots.
That being said, if Romney gets the nomination, I will hold my nose and vote for him. Hell, I would vote for an orange juice can over Obama. (And yes, I borrowed that from Mark Levin, lol)