# Obama campaign: Jon Huntsman was the real threat **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 22, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799 "2012-11-22T03:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/21 "2012-11-23T04:52:51Z")
Jon Huntsman seems to be an okay guy from his television appearances and doesn’t come across as slimy or ignorant unlike the other candidates in the primaries. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/22 "2012-11-23T15:30:53Z")
> [@Gerald\_II](#): > > Jon Huntsman seems to be an okay guy from his television appearances and doesn’t come across as slimy or ignorant unlike the other candidates in the primaries. Acting! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/23 "2012-11-23T16:16:26Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Acting! Genius! ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/24 "2012-11-23T20:06:07Z")
Great position to be in; you can maybe win the Presidency or the nomination, but not both. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/25 "2012-11-23T20:41:42Z")
> [@BrokenBriton](#): > > Great position to be in; you can maybe win the Presidency or the nomination, but not both. That’s not quite accurate. Economic sabotage sufficient to cause recession can beat an incumbent, even if the Republicans nominated Rick Santorum. Blocking a growth and infrastructure package, as the Republicans did in the fall of 2011, will deliver victory if you nominate an open neuro-typical against an incumbent or a even a crazy against a non-incumbent. So the GOP is hardly on the ropes yet. The only question is whether the donor class will catch on to this game. Source: the Fair model, which gives 2.9% in the two party vote to incumbency and gave Obama a ~49% baseline in 2012. Obama beat that margin by 2.4 percentage points, which is historically high but not off the charts. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/election-map-2012/president/?hpid=z6](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/election-map-2012/president/?hpid=z6) Fair uses the 2 party vote share (which gives 51.4% to Obama) as opposed to the 50.6% that Obama won in the popular vote. Economic data subject to revision: the baseline will probably rise a bit. [Vote-Share Equations: November 2010 Update](http://fairmodel.econ.yale.edu/vote2012/index2.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/26 "2012-11-23T21:03:28Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Acting! > [@Gyrate](#): > > Genius! Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/27 "2012-11-23T21:04:03Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I figured that he was brought into the Obama Administration in 2009 largely to neutralize him for 2012. And if that was their goal, it worked perfectly. As the events played out, though, I am not sure they had that much to worry about. Nobody seemed interested in Huntsman except the media, and while his connection to Obama hurt him, I don’t think he was what the Republican primary voters were looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Muffy\_Simba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Muffy\_Simba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffy_Simba)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/28 "2012-11-24T13:47:53Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Okay, but the real question is: Do these Republicans vote for a third-party candidate or stay home, knowing that in doing so they might let the country get stolen away by the evil socialist gun-taking Obama? > > I think the conservative base is going to turn out to vote for the R pretty much no matter what. That’s just a gut feeling and I could be wrong, but considering the fearmongering that conservative media outlets like to engage in, I don’t see these guys staying home or voting third-party, even if the R they’re given is some kind of wishy-washy evolution-believing compromise-making pseudo-liberal. Yes, voters from both parties do skip voting. Voters do not vote every time. The liberal media doesn’t engage in fear mongering? Ha. Both are guilty of doing that, but Obama and his team were guilty this year. The media as whole engage in fear mongering. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/29 "2012-11-24T13:52:37Z")
> [@Muffy\_Simba](#): > > Yes, voters from both parties do skip voting. Voters do not vote every time. The liberal media doesn’t engage in fear mongering? Ha. Both are guilty of doing that, but Obama and his team were guilty this year. The media as whole engage in fear mongering. You do not seem capable of the analytical skills necessary to participate in a discussion of this sort. Perhaps another message board would be better for you. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/30 "2012-11-24T15:36:40Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Nobody seemed interested in Huntsman except the media My anecdotal experience is that voters who were not registered Republicans, were indeed quite curious about this Huntsman person, and that’s what the media picked up on. I think he would have done really well with the type of voter who doesn’t like Obama all that much as a person but still believes that Obama’s reforms were necessary and should not be rolled back. Most of the people I’ve met recently would fit into that category. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/31 "2012-11-24T16:19:38Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > You do not seem capable of the analytical skills necessary to participate in a discussion of this sort. Perhaps another message board would be better for you. Please avoid personal insults, even those not terribly well veiled by being posed semi-hypothetically. Thanks, **twickster** , Elections moderator ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/32 "2012-11-24T17:33:18Z")
Apologies. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/33 "2012-11-24T18:26:06Z")
No worries, you have inspired a fascinating new concept in cogitation physics, the “semi-hypothetical”. It’s a bold new advance in quantum thinking. Is the cat dead, or alive? Well, what does the cat think? Hypothetically, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/34 "2012-11-24T18:31:30Z")
The timing of that press release says, to me, that Obam knows that the Reps will be in the White house again after his term is up, and he wants to make sure, already, that it will be a sensible Republican. What we see here is a president endorsing his future opposing candidate. I think it is classy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/35 "2012-11-24T18:49:52Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > No worries, you have inspired a fascinating new concept in cogitation physics, the “semi-hypothetical”. It’s a bold new advance in quantum thinking. Is the cat dead, or alive? Well, what does the cat think? Hypothetically, I mean. “Is that something I can eat?” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799/36 "2012-11-24T20:59:19Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > My anecdotal experience is that voters who were not registered Republicans, were indeed quite curious about this Huntsman person, and that’s what the media picked up on. I think he would have done really well with the type of voter who doesn’t like Obama all that much as a person but still believes that Obama’s reforms were necessary and should not be rolled back. Most of the people I’ve met recently would fit into that category. I can believe that, but there aren’t too many of those people voting in the Republican primaries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-campaign-jon-huntsman-was-the-real-threat/641799.md?page=1)