Huntsman:Vanilla Lite

If Tim Pawlenty is the vanilla candidate then Jon Huntsman is vanilla-lite. Monday Mr. Huntsman rolled out his candidacy in sight of the Statue of Liberty as did Ronald Reagan when he kicked off his 1980 campaign for the presidency. In doing so he invited the inevitable comparisons between himself and Ronald Reagan and those comparison will not serve him well. Within minutes Rush Limbaugh had a sound track of Reagan's speech delivered at that location. It brought to mind Lloyd Benson's broadside he delivered to Dan Quale. "I knew John Kennedy. John Kennedy was a friend of mine. And you are no John Kennedy." Yes we knew Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a friend of our's. And you are no Ronald Reagan. Reagan, in a style that Donald Trump would envy, went for Mr. Carter's jugular like a pit bull, saying in effect things were bad and things would not get better until Jimmy Carter was gone. Huntsman let his long winded speech outrun the cable networks' coverage as they went to commercial breaks. Really? The one we've all been waiting for can't even keep CNN interested..

The New York Times weighed in with this :" Mr. Huntsman and his aides are aware that the country’s economic situation will be at the forefront of the voters’ minds during the election. But they are also hoping that Mr. Huntsman can offer a civility in politics that voters say they crave."

Of course that's the New York Times not Jon Huntsman but if that's all the news that fit to print from this much anticipated event then this man needs a speech writer worse than Gingrich needs money. Michelle Malkin has a great post on Huntsman and a video where he is roundly booed at a Tea Party rally for his support of Obama's stimulus program. It might be wise to see what has happened back in Utah. Senator Bob Bennett was replaced with Mike Lee by Republican party leaders and Orrin Hatch will have the fight of his political life to keep his seat away from Jason Chaffetz. Now we find his family donated about $20,000 to Harry Reid in his race against Sharron Angle. No Ambassador Huntsman had the good sense not to smear to Reid but if it had been discovered that Jack Kennedy's father and two brothers had donated to Barry Goldwater's senate campaign we would have heard a lot less about PT109.