Huntsman to resign

I’ve said before that I don’t think former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has much of a shot at the White House, nor that he has a shot at becoming Utah’s next senator. The reasons for both are similar. He’s not conservative enough to survive either a Utah state GOP convention or the national nomination process.
But as it appears clear now that Huntsman is going to resign as ambassador to China and probably give the White House a go, I’ve had to give everything a little deeper thought. Here are some reasons why I could be wrong:

1.Remember Jimmy Carter? He was an obscure governor who came from nowhere to grab the Democratic nomination from a field that was in disarray. When he announced his candidacy, his name recognition was a scant 2 percent. The latest polls on the 2012 GOP nomination don’t even include Huntsman, which means he’s probably somewhere south of Tim Pawlenty’s 4.3 percent.
2.Keeping up the Carter theme, he caught hold in primaries because he represented something a post-Watergate nation really wanted – an outsider unsullied by Washington’s business-as-usual. Despite his lack of name recognition, Huntsman would be entering a field in disarray. Mitt Romney’s star seems to be setting. The rest – Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich – appeal to the right wing of the party but are probably unable to beat Obama.
Huntsman is a moderate who led the nation’s reddest state. He enacted reforms here to liquor laws and the tax structure, and the state was considered by some to be the nation’s best managed while he was here. While some of that may be more the work of a conservative Legislature than the governor, that nuance would be lost on a national audience.
3. Carter gained the support of key media voices. Huntsman’s recent splash in Eastern media, beginning with the now famous Newsweek piece, has been astounding. Read this piece, or this one, for just two examples.
4. Notice that none of those media pieces make much fuss about Huntsman being a Mormon? Remember what Romney went though in that regard three years ago? Most of that was coming from the right. Huntsman’s base apparently isn’t too concerned about his religion.
5. President Obama has given Huntsman something no other GOP candidate has — real foreign-policy credentials. Huntsman can speak with authority on China and the Pacific Rim. Even if he gets criticized for carrying Obama’s water over there, he can now say he resigned because he disagreed with the administration’s position.
Having said all this, I’m still not convinced. But there is that outside chance that Huntsman could catch a wave at the right time. I can’t blame the guy for trying.