Huntsman's campaign strategist calls GOP field "weakest since 1940".

[sufrommich]

Next week's announcement of his candidacy, expected to take place at Liberty State Park in New Jersey, is just a formality. Huntsman began his campaign more than six weeks ago, with a series of early-morning meetings less than eight hours after his resignation as ambassador took effect at midnight on April 30, and his campaign team, led by former John McCain strategist John Weaver, began its unofficial work long before that.

For Weaver and the rest of the team, Huntsman's intelligence and foreign-policy experience, combined with his strong record of fiscal conservatism and social semimoderation (he supports civil unions for gay couples and believes climate change is an urgent issue), made him the ideal candidate to shake up a Republican field that Weaver calls "the weakest since 1940."

"There's a simple reason our party is nowhere near being a national governing party," Weaver told Esquire. "No one wants to be around a bunch of cranks."

Weaver sees Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and the presumed front-runner, as a man afraid to take a stand — or, more accurately, as a man unafraid of taking every stand. "What version are we on now?" Weaver said. "Mitt 5.0? 6.0?"



Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/jon-huntsman-afghanistan-5924855#ixzz1QE5K3U7h

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Oh please, he's only encouraging George Pataki . . . .

George Pataki: ‘I’ll Certainly Feel Compelled To Run’ If No Strong Candidate Emerges

Former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) may be getting closer to a run for president in 2012, saying Wednesday that if no candidate with a strong deficit-reduction plan emerges -- one who actually has a shot at beating President Obama -- then "I'll certainly feel compelled to take a look."

In an interview with the Fiscal Times, Pataki said that the national debt is "if not the most important issue, then one of the two most important issues facing the future of our country."

When asked if anyone in the Republican field is "adequately addressing this issue," Pataki replied: "Not at this point."

-more-


http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/george-pataki-ill-certainly-feel-compelled-to-run-if-no-strong-candidate-emerges.php?ref=fpblg

[sufrommich]

3. Neither one of them will make it past the GOP primaries. nt

[aquart]

4. Pataki. Exciting as Pawlenty.

[villager]

2. You mean, even the Republicans are using the FDR era as a kind of benchmark, too!?

:shrug:

[ashling]

5. This is supposed to make Huntsman sound exciting?

Way to lower expectations!

[tanyev]

6. He doesn't seem to understand that the cranks now dominate the Republican party.

Whatever.