Jon Huntsman making it official

[nageov3t]

Huntsman Will Announce at Liberty Park

Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, will officially declare his intentions to unseat his former boss from the White House on June 21 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, where Ronald Reagan launched his presidential campaign in 1980.

He is scheduled to do a live interview at 1:00 p.m. alongside Henry Kissinger at Reuters.com where the subject is not unlikely to come up, given how widely his plans were circulated early Tuesday afternoon.

Mr. Huntsman, who served two years as President Obama’s ambassador to China, is set to declare his intentions at Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

Mr. Huntsman will then kick off a campaign swing through New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Utah and Nevada — noticeably skipping the state of Iowa, where caucus voting begins next year.

The choice of New Jersey, which will provide a backdrop of the Statue of Liberty for the announcement, is intended to conjure up the memory of Mr. Reagan’s legacy as Mr. Huntsman seeks the nomination.

Mr. Huntsman joins a race already well under way, as was made clear by Monday night’s debate in New Hampshire. But his advisers argue that there remains plenty of time for the ex-governor to establish himself as a serious contender.

The candidate to be has already said he will not compete in Iowa, saying his stand opposing ethanol subsidies would make victory there difficult. The decision could clear the way for Mr. Huntsman to focus more intensely on knocking off Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, in New Hampshire.

But it could also take Mr. Huntsman out of the political narrative toward the end of 2011 as the other candidates compete in the caucuses.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/huntsman-will-announce-at-liberty-park/?ref=politics

for multiple reasons, I wouldn't vote for him for President, but it would be cool to see a pro-civil unions republican have a strong showing in the primaries.

the place where he's doing the announcement is only a couple minutes away from my office... if I had the details about exactly where it was, I might consider going.

 

[soundforbjt]

Great, another anti-abortion, tax cutting repub, just what was missing from the current field. 🙄

 

[sunzt]

Great, another anti-abortion, tax cutting repub, just what was missing from the current field. 🙄

Compared to the rest of the field, he's the moderate.

 

[a777pilot]

He is NOT going to be the GOP nominee in 2012 but I support his inclusion in this great field of candidates. The more the better. Governors have experience and idea that will work and have worked.

I'm still waiting for more candidates to come.

 

[Lemon law]

Having too many candidates may be a liability for the GOP and not an asset. To win the nomination at the GOP convention is simply a winnowing contest. And it sure helps to win some early primaries. And better yet lock it all up by the end of the primaries.

But with too many candidates with semi equal minority appeal, the bar can drop too low to be anything but a measure of the strength of only one faction of the GOP. Too many candidates and any given State primary winner may win with only 10-15% of the total vote. `

And to win the general election, the GOP nominee needs to unite all the GOP and appeal to conservative democrats and also independents. Something McCain tried and failed at doing in 2008. Even with Palin.

Of course the same thing can happened to any other political party, but, still it was the GOP problem in 2008 and looks to be the GOP problem in 2012, at least in term of Prez.