Posted on 12/02/2011 9:53:00 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative
(snip)
Jon Huntsman inexplicably chose to debut as the Republican for people who rather dislike Republicans, but his program is the most conservative. He endorses Paul Ryan’s budget and entitlement reforms. (Gingrich denounced Ryan’s Medicare reform as “right-wing social engineering.”) Huntsman would privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Gingrich’s benefactor). Huntsman would end double taxation on investment by eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends. (Romney would eliminate them only for people earning less than $200,000, who currently pay just 9.3 percent of them.) Huntsman’s thorough opposition to corporate welfare includes farm subsidies. (Romney has justified them as national security measures — food security, somehow threatened. Gingrich says opponents of ethanol subsidies are “big-city” people hostile to farmers.) Huntsman considers No Child Left Behind, the semi-nationalization of primary and secondary education, “an unmitigated disaster.” (Romney and Gingrich support it. Gingrich has endorsed a national curriculum.) Between Ron Paul’s isolationism and the faintly variant bellicosities of the other six candidates stands Huntsman’s conservative foreign policy, skeptically nuanced about America’s need or ability to control many distant developments.
Romney might not be a Dewey. Gingrich might stop being (as Churchill said of John Foster Dulles) a bull who carries his own china shop around with him. But both are too risky to anoint today.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Then Georgie Will has gone senile.
The is nothing at all “conservative” about Huntsmann. His big govt statist solutions on everything from Bank Regulation to the myth of global warming expose him as just another Democrat Lite RINO.
Simply posting your emotional opinion over and over will not magically change this fiction to fact.
I’m sorry, but NOTHING at all conservative about Huntsman? Really? Nothing?
He’s just another pro-life, pro-gun, tax cutting, Ryan Plan supporting, liberal, I guess? Dang. He almost fooled me with that cunning disguise....
Read his own issues, page. There is nothing even remotely “conservative” about Huntsman
The only way you can see Huntsman as “conservative” is if you change the definition of “conservative” to mean Democrat Lite RINO.
I agree that the anti-science remark was triggered more out of desperation from a candidate looking to catch a break in the media at that point than out of disrespect or hostility to anything or any one in particular, It served his purpose by widening the case with moderates and Independents but came across as so tone-deaf in right wing circles you will notice it wasn’t a mis-step that was repeated.
The fact remains there is no way to put together a winning base without appealing to ex-Obama supporters FED UP with the state of things (and there are TONS of them). What has to be kept in mind is that Huntsman is looking to scale up the concepts instituted in Utah without pandering or running away from his record. (Although I wouldn’t mind if he flip-flopped on global warming which isn’t going to fly as a political wedge issue.)
So because Jon is an old-school conservative, his indictment of the problems the party faces in continuing to be out of touch with mainstream America is obviously not an indictment of traditional free market conservative philosophy. It may not be a popular line to take, but if the country were interested in radical solutions by a less than qualified right wing theorist we would be on the verge of a Pres Bachmann, Pres Santorum, Paul, Perry etc., no ?
“The minute the Republican party becomes the anti-science party, we have a huge problem”
“We’re not going to win a national election if we become the anti-science party,”
He’s right that he has an actual conservative record—about two-thirds of the time. But he was a big spender in Utah, he’s a squish on foreign affairs (no Ron Paul mind you, but about as bad as an over-interventionalist in the other direction), and most egregiously he’s terrible on illegal immigration.
I still think he’s no worse than Gingrich or Perry or Romney at this point, but he’s sent me back examining again Bachmann or Santorum or what Palin said in her two interviews this week.
Except of course, that is not the case. I know Huntsman’s positions very well. You can mistrust him for working for Obama if you wish, if you don’t like his stance on evolution and climate change, that’s fine too. These are legitimate reasons for concern, but you can’t genuinely say there is nothing at all conservative about the guy, and keep a straight face, surely?
Isn’t being so consistently pro-life and pro-gun, conservative?
Isn’t having a record as a tax-cutter as governor of one of the most conservative states in the nation, a little touch of conservatism?
Surely supporting the Ryan Plan is something that a conservative would recognise?
What about school vouchers in Utah?
There is actually a reasonable case to put forward that Huntsman is the most electable conservative candidate in this election. Certainly more conservative than Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
Perhaps you don’t agree with him. That’s fine. But, my goodness, how far have we gone astray, how small to we want this party to be, if someone with such a conservative record on most issues like Jon Huntsman is dismissed as a ‘Democrat Lite RINO’?
Can you REALLY not see any conservatism in his record and positions, at all?
Fair enough. Nobody’s perfect. If you ultimately decide that you prefer Rick Santorum or Michele Bachmann as the Republican nominee for the presidency ahead of Jon Huntsman, then good luck to you.
The choice is between Gingrich and Romney...
You think people like Gingrich and Romney?
ROFLOL!
Or for that matter, do people really like the personality of Paul or Santorum or Bachmann or Perry?
Cain started out as the most likable in part because he had so little competition, but even he has worn out his welcome.
I agree Huntsman is vulnerable to the charge of “cheating” on Utah’s own balanced budget amendment, although in fairness the state deficit came more as a result of recessionary drying up of tax revenues more than a governor spending whenever he liked it as some Republicans have portrayed.
By the same token, he does need to address the debt problem with some more consideration than the talking points of a Balanced Budget Amendment, Ryan Plan (also Palin’s solution), etc. Tax reform, regulatory reform and energy independence to get a jump start but the country isn’t going to grow out of a death spiral without being more big and bold in addressing the problem of government,
The debt question is a little bit of a red herring. I’m talking about Huntsman purely increasing the size of the budget and hence the size of the government. He’s probably got a worse record on that than anyone running.
You think people like Gingrich and Romney?
ROFLOL!
On the same day Rasmussen has Obama only two points ahead of Romney, 44-42
Two days earlier Rasmussen had Gingrich two points above Obama 45-43.
I suggest you get up off the floor and do your homework before you post-or were you down there looking for your humility, in which case stay down there until you find it.
Huntsman is little different than Obama.
Huntsman is little different than Obama.
You shouldn’t. George Will is a mean spirited idiot.
True. But economically speaking, Utah was one of the best managed states and model for economic development. Spending increased, but waste decreased, the Rainy Day fund tripled, books were balanced and in fact they had surpluses. Huntsman turned in a balanced budget every year. I don’t have a problem with spending as long as it keeps pace with growth and can be legitimately paid for without tax increases. Clearly he will need more tricks up his sleeve than the Utah model because their way of doing business isn’t going to be taken up any time soon with the US Government.
Why are you attacking me personally because I have a different definition of "like."
You keep talking about polls. I maintain that some of the people polled who answered Newt of Mitt, don't "like" them.
Yours is exactly the kind of attack that is turning people off FR!
BTW, on the floor or not, we must be on the same level or we wouldn't keep running into each other. That is what I regret...jerk!
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