Tax reform isn’t a problem: Bill Bradley was one of the early architects of the 1986 effort. The problem for the Democrats would be that Huntsman is very conservative across the board. Pro-life is ok, tax cuts for the rich can be ok, but consistent hard-but-not-far right stuff causes problems. I don’t think the man has anywhere to go.
Cite? He got maybe 2 weeks of coverage. After that he tweeted items that were not so much liberal as sane. And that’s what did him in: he was far too neurotypical for the Republican electorate. It has nothing to do with the media and everything to do with the base.
Here are his tweets: To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/08/19/gop-candidate-jon-huntsman-makes-waves-with-tweet-on-evolution-and-climate-change/ And over in South Carolina, he wouldn’t pander to the loons: One of the state’s Tea Party leaders, Chris Lawton, asks what he knows about China’s setting up “secret free-trade zones” in the American West. Huntsman politely says he hasn’t heard anything about that and moves along. There’s nothing moderate about Huntsman. It’s just that he is neither a lunatic, nor does he try to act like one. And that is electoral poison in a Republican primary.