Jon Huntsman

[mallorys_camera]

Except for his views on abortion, Jon Huntsman may be the perfect presidential candidate. While he was Utah's governor, he cut taxes by $400 million and the state still ended up with a surplus. Also problematic: he's for civil unions not gay marriage -- but I don't know that anypresidential candidate is going to come out in favor of gay marriage and that includes Obama.

I'm shallow -- so I like that he dropped out of high school to play in a rock band. I like that his father became a billionaire by inventing the egg carton. I like that he speaks fluent Mandarin. I like that two of his seven children are adopted, one from China, one from India, and that he is raising the Indian daughter as a Hindi. Huntsman's own religion? Jack Mormon. But really the best of what the Mormon pioneer tradition can yield up: practical, not offensively wholesome, skilled in the faith of community and incentive. And damn -- if America isn't a political desert hungry to blossom like a rose, what is?

I'm not sure Huntsman can win a Republican primary. But if he could, I am sure he'd beat Obama.

Comments

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

I am not so impressed by him raising that girl in a different religion. She will never be fully a part of the family if he does that.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't agree!

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

For Latter-Day Saints, religion is a VERY big part of family life.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I think he's the classic Jack Mormon.

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Is that like a Catholic that only shows up for Christmas and Easter?

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

:-)

Kind of -- and kind of not. I'm not sure what the proper phrasing here is because there are a lot of smart Mormons who don't question their faith at all. But for some smart Mormons, the church's congregational aspects may be wonderful but the cosmology is really off-putting. I mean Joseph Smith quite literally was a snake oil salesman in upstate New York -- not so very far away from where I live now as a matter of fact. So these Mormons have to come to terms with the fact that while they may admire things about their church as an organization, they simply can't support the teachings. A number of them leave over it, others stick around but don't define themselves as strict Mormons. "Jack Mormon" is a wide spectrum.

[platofish.livejournal.com]

I heard him being interviewed on Hannity last night...... he struck me as personable, but nothing struck me as being particularly positive or negative about politics. Seems a bit 'vanilla'. Perhaps thats whats needed.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

What impressed me the most about him is that as Utah's governor he cut taxes and saved the state money -- by reorganizing the way state bureaucracies were administered, which is exactly what needs to happen.

Can I tell you how amazed I am that you watch Hannity? ;-)

I listen to Hannity on the radio sometimes. Glenn Beck too. I'm curious about them.

[platofish.livejournal.com]

I watch Hannity and the other Fox talking heads regularly..... on my cable box Fox is one channel away from CNN so I flick between them. I find Hannity's constant Obama bashing tiresome, but then again, in the past I found the constant Bush bashing by the liberal leaning channels equally wearing.

In general my TV viewing is very basic....Cops, Jersey Shore, Lockup San Quentin, NASCAR, reality TV, etc.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Jersey Shore! :-)

The ultimate reality TV is Bravo's Real Housewife franchise. You don't sink that low, do you? I've been trying to break my Real Housewives habit for years.

[platofish.livejournal.com]

The first Jersey Shore series was compelling viewing......the later series less so (by that point the cast were relatively well known and this tainted their interaction with the public).

I've watched a few episodes of Real Housewifes.... but I find the cast and situations to be too contrived for my tastes.

[jdquintette.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about this guy but if he's as reasonable as you say he is, he doesn't stand a chance of passing the Tea Party Purity Test. I can already sense the raw meat nutzoid base bridling at his "belief" in global warming, his willingness to let fags unite in civil unions, etc. On the other hand, if the GOP really can enforce party discipline on their bass, he'd probably have a shot. Hell, Mitt Romney has a shot if they can get people to forget that his state health care plan is essentially the same as "Obamacare." And he looks reasonable, especially when standing next to Michelle Bachman.

BTW, I don't know if you read Matt Taibbi, but he has a column on "why I can't vote for Ron Paul" that says most of what I would have said in my last comment here on the subject if I hadn't been typing in standing up in a stinking hot coffee shop full of chattering students:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/mailbag-why-i-cant-vote-for-ron-paul-20110502

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Love Matt Taibbi! Have been reading him since he ran that expat paper eXile</> in Moscow.

Huntsman Sr, the egg carton inventor, is one of Glenn Beck's financial backers interestingly enough, and Beck knocks Huntsman Jr. every chance he gets by which I infer that Senior doesn't approve of Junior's presidential ambitions. Senior is not a Jack Mormon.

If you have a moment, read about Huntsman. I'm not saying he's perfect. But I absolutely will not vote for Obama -- and Huntsman is looking like a good alternative.

[robby.livejournal.com]

Rolling Stone just released his scurrilous hit piece on Michele Bachman:

"Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats"

Of course, the Chinese (among others) do want to replace the US dollar as the currency of world trade, and CFL light bulbs are a terrible choice, containing toxic mercury, and polluting our homes and landfills. Taibbi wrote it such a dishonest way, so his dim-witted readers can chortle about what a nut she is.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Well, Taibbi is not a reporter per se. You'll note that he also eschews the AP Stylebook when he writes. He's much more of the style of Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson, the so-called New Journalism where it's understood that observations are filtered through their own personal conceptual lens.

[robby.livejournal.com]

It's more of the same - an arrogant, lying elite using the press to mislead the public. It's called political propaganda.

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

He's probably the most sane of the Republican candidates.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Easily.