Mr. Huntsman is in a mad scramble to make himself distinguishable, nay, relevant, in a Republican field which is intensifying its stiffening adherence to core conservative principles.
Using the same tired rhetoric as left-wing pols and Tea-Party carpers, he smears the front-runners as "extremist." Compared to his watered-down moderation, every Republican candidate is blazing conservative radicalism, with fire in the heart to take on the statist assault decimating this nation's economic recovery.
Contrary to his attempt to shape the Republican narrative, the electorate is steadily clamoring for the take-charge spirit to take on the tax-and-spend status quo and take off where Obama has merely stumbled and pouted. Big Government is a big failure, and President Obama, the knee-jerk Progressive who believes only in the Almighty sway of Gargantuan Government, has no other tools at his disposal. Every trick he has trickled out has failed, one after the other. Any harder tack the right is well-placed and welcome, despite any strident rhetoric of current contenders.
Besides, Mr. Huntsman should not be chiding anyone on extremism. No candidate but he must justify the near-extreme decision to take a diplomatic post fron one of the most liberal, and loathed, Presidents in modern history, only to run on the opposing ticket as a moderate in a similar cast.
Granted, his straight-forward rebuttal to Michelle Bachmann's pledge to bring gas back down to $2 a gallon is justifiable. Yet Bachmann' outspoken slovenliness with the facts needs no commentary nor addendum.
However, Huntsman unjustifiably slams Texas Governor Rick Perry as "unelectable". Perry can boast of leading a Republican bastion of electoral votes with a sound state economy, a state which has created jobs in the wake of the Great Recession. Perry balances religious and social conservatism with a healthy dose of down-home limited-government sense and sensibility. A late-comer who did not officially throw his hat into the ring until after the Iowa straw poll, he still garnered 750 votes and zoomed into front-runner status. Huntsman's denunciations are mere desperation in light of a race heating up, and burning away moderate chaff like the formed governor of Utah.
Huntsman also fleetingly castigates Governor Romney: "You know, if we were to talk about his inconsistencies and the changes on various issues, we’d be here all afternoon." Yet the glaring shortcoming of Huntsman's taking orders, then challenging, the incumbent Democratic President is the gravest inconsistency of all. How would he fare squaring off against hist former boss in general-election debates, where even Obama's kind words would box Huntsman to fight against his own record.
Mr. Huntsman may not have the questionable personal peccadilloes of Newt Gingrich, or the libertarian idiosyncrasies of Ron Paul, yet his empty swipes at well-positioned and well-financed front-runners merely underscore his dwindling relevance in a national contest looking for outstanding, outspoken, and yes--outrageous--candidates who are unafraid to talk truth to the progressive powers that be, and hopefully will not be for long.
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