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SALT LAKE CITY -- Many outside the state of Utah know little -- if anything -- about the former Utah governor and ambassador to China Jon Huntsman Jr., let alone would they vote for him to be the Republican nominee to battle it out with his former boss President Barack Obama.
However, Huntsman believes he has a shot at obtaining the Republican nomination as an unconventional politician, ready to take on the challenges of the nation's growing problems. With the Statue of Liberty as his backdrop, Huntsman will announce Tuesday his road to the White House.
But the road will certainly not be easy for a candidate that is relatively unknown in the national political realm.
On Monday, the New York Times Magazine put out a highly- anticipated profile piece about Huntsman, detailing the steps he took before deciding to run for president in 2012. Reporter Matt Bai was given complete access to the former governor along his five-day tour of New Hampshire, a key battleground state for Republican contenders.
Bai compared Huntsman's decision to join the Republican field to an old Saturday Night Live sketch called the "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" -- a caveman who thawed out after thousands of years, went to law school and ran for political office.
"As I watched Huntsman tour New Hampshire, I began to think of him, in a kind way, as being the unfrozen caveman candidate," Bai said. "He'd been living in a censored society on the other side of the planet -- encased in ice, for all political purposes -- during the town-hall uprisings in the summer of 2009 and all the grassroots fury that attached itself to everything Obama did. And this, he seemed to think, exempted him from having to know much about any of it."
On television, Huntsman radiates strength, with his conventional good looks and easy demeanor, but in person he sometimes has a lesser presence.
–Matt Bai
The decision to jump into the Republican field for the 2012 election cycle, after barely making a blip on the presidential radar, has many critics puzzled. Following a two-year stint under a democratic administration, several Republican officials believe Huntsman is a long-shot for a bid at the White House.
And his lack of vision, Bai said, is the most troubling aspect of his future campaign. Bai questioned a few Republican activists who attended Huntsman's New Hampshire tour, and the responses were similar.
Juliana Bergeron, a prominent Republican moderate who hosted Huntsman's first house party, told Bai, "I don't think he was connecting as well as some of the other candidates."
Travis Blais, Republican chairman in Windham, N.H., told Bai: "His attitude seems to be, ‘Well, I'm just up here introducing myself to people, and I'll let you know what my positions are later.' I was surprised by that. It may be fine, and you may get another bite at the apple, but you've got 70 voters in a room right now! You can make your pitch right now!
"Frankly, people noticed," Blais added. "In my conversations with my neighbors since then, people said, ‘Nice guy, very smart, but I have no idea what he thinks.' "
And that doesn't trend well for a candidate that is unknown by the American electorate.
"On television," Bai added, "Huntsman radiates strength, with his conventional good looks and easy demeanor, but in person he sometimes has a lesser presence."
In a recent Pew Research Center poll, only 36 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters have heard of Huntsman. And of those that have heard of him, only 35 percent said there was no chance they'd vote for him.
On paper, Bai described, Huntsman appears to be a strong candidate against the Obama administration. However, his similarity with Republican front-runner Mitt Romney discredits his chances.
Bai concludes his profile piece by calling Huntsman the "Mitt Romney of 2016."
"There are reasons, of course that a guy like Huntsman could think it worth his while to run for president, even if he thinks he isn't actually going to be president, or even his party's nominee," Bai said. "By diving into the race now, he has a chance to erase this idea of himself as ‘the guy who worked for Obama' and re- establish his credentials as the Republican leader who gave the nominating speech for Sarah Palin in 2008. If he performs even respectably, then he might be able to position himself as the logical next choice should Obama be re-elected — in other words, the Mitt Romney of 2016."
Related:
Time Magazine released a bracket-style approach to selecting the Republican nominee called "Baracketolgy." The bracket consists of Republican presidential hopefuls divided into two categories: social-conservative and populist candidates like Michele Bachmann and more moderate candidates like Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney.
To participate in the voting, visit www.time.com/gopbracket or mail in the front cover of a Time Magazine to:
TIME Magazine Letter
Attention: GOP Bracket
Time & Life Building, New York, NY 10020
Voting ends July 1. Time Magazine will report the results on Friday, July 8.
Email: jfurlong@ksl.com
