Jon Huntsman quits the Republican presidential race

To be fair to the man, he really had no path to the nomination.

Via The NYT’s Caucus:

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will announce Monday that he is ending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and endorsing Mitt Romney, narrowing the field and erasing a challenge to Mr. Romney from the moderate wing of his party.

Mr. Huntsman, who had hoped to use the South Carolina primary this week to revive his flagging candidacy, informed his advisers on Sunday that he was bowing to political reality and would back Mr. Romney, whom he accused a week ago of putting party ahead of country.

Mr. Huntsman, who had struggled to live up to the early expectations of his candidacy, was to deliver a speech Monday morning in Myrtle Beach, where the five remaining major Republican candidates will gather hours later for a debate. His endorsement of Mr. Romney is indication of the party establishment getting behind Mr. Romney and trying to focus the party on defeating President Obama.

“The governor and his family, at this point in the race, decided it was time for Republicans to rally around a candidate who could beat Barack Obama and turn around the economy,” Matt David, Mr. Huntsman’s campaign manager, said in an interview Sunday evening. “That candidate is Gov. Mitt Romney.”

But Mr. Huntsman’s decision was unlikely to have any particular influence where Mr. Romney needs it most, among social and religious conservatives who remain wary of Mr. Romney’s ideological inconsistency. With the withdrawal of Mr. Huntsman, who despite his efforts to portray himself as more conservative than Mr. Romney was often viewed as the moderate in the race, the South Carolina primary is now Mr. Romney against an array of opponents coming at him from the right.

I have a theory as to why Huntsman could not win. Partially it is because of his association with President Barack Obama. However, there is another reason too; it is because the man was seen as too moderate, and the GOP had been down that road before. You see, for all of George W. Bush’s great performance during and after the attacks on 9/11; Bush was, for the most part a very moderate Republican. A Rockefeller Conservative, if you will.  No child left behind, the bail out of the banks and other such things were seen by many of the rib-rocked Conservatives, as Big Government actions. The Republican establishment never forgot this, neither did the grassroots. So, they decided against a man, who I felt personally could have made a difference in Washington D.C.

I am not a fan of Mitt Romney, as you already have read here. However, I will concede on thing, he can debate very well and he can also think on his feet. I believe that, if anyone, Mitt Romney will be able to beat Obama in the general election. Santorum is too far to the right; a radical in some eyes. Romney strikes a more measured moderate tone, and I believe that is important. Because as Barry Goldwater found out in 1964, that  extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and  that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue; but it just does not win elections. Americans recoil away from extremist views and beliefs. This explains why people like David Duke or Madalyn Murray O’Hair were never President. 😀

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