Later today, Jon Huntsman will formally announce withdrawal from the primary campaign and his support of Mitt Romney. FirstRead:
And then there were five. At a speech from Myrtle Beach, SC at 11:00 am ET, former Utah Gov. (and former China ambassador) Jon Huntsman will announce his departure from the Republican presidential race and will endorse Mitt Romney, NBC’s Jo Ling Kent reported last night. Despite the attention his candidacy received from the Chattering Class and despite the help from a Super PAC financed in part by his wealthy father, Huntsman never took off. A big reason was tone. He was the only GOP presidential candidate who never adopted the Tea Party’s rhetoric. Besides Ron Paul, he was the only one calling for the U.S. to withdraw from Afghanistan. And he was the only one calling for civility in politics. “We will conduct this campaign on the high road; I don't think you need to run down someone's reputation in order to run for the office of president,” Huntsman said at his presidential kick-off speech. As BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith noted, Huntsman made a gamble -- back in 2009 -- that his party would turn to the middle either tonally or ideologically. And that gamble turned out to be wrong.
But does Huntsman's endorsement of Mitt Romney strike you as strange?
If you continue to read the piece at FirstRead, which has some great reactions to Huntsman's exit, they talk about exactly what I am thinking; Huntsman is supporting Romney, when earlier in the campaign he said that Romney was "unelectable against Barack Obama" due to his varying stances on the "issues of the day".
How can Huntsman throw his support behind a candidate about whom he had some pretty harsh things to say?
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Photo: AP
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