Jon Huntsman Admits He is Running for Vice President Not President

Jon Huntsman essentially admitted that he is running for Vice President not President in a CNN interview with Piers Morgan. What's more intriguing is that he offered himself as ticket-balancing moderate to a Tea Party candidate.

Piers Morgan: "Could you ever imagine running as a running mate to someone like Mitt Romney?"

Jon Huntsman: "There’d be too many jokes about that, no I can't imagine that at all."

Piers Morgan: "What about a Tea Party candidate? If Michele Bachmann continued to get real traction and she came to you and said, 'Look, you're the other part of the party here, together we can create sweet music.'"

Jon Huntsman: "You know, if you love this country, you serve this country. Every time I've been asked to serve over different administrations from Reagan to the two Bushes to President Obama, I have the same answer and that is: If you love this country, you serve her. And so if you're in a position to better the country by bringing whatever background you have to bear, whatever experiences to use in fine-tuning our future, I'll be the first person to sign up. Absolutely."

Yes, Huntsman backed off the idea somewhat by asserting that he believe he would win the nomination for President. But that's pro forma, and not really very realistic given where he is in the race.

This comes after a couple of weeks where Jon Hunstman has hit the Tea Party pretty hard, particularly on failing to support the debt ceiling increase. But in saying he would serve under a Tea Party President, he is finally giving the Tea Party some credibility and showing the Tea Party some respect.

Of course, Jon Huntsman is not the only Republican candidate for President who is really running for Vice President. In fact, until a generic Republican who can convincingly beat Barack Obama emerges, they all are.

Maxine Waters Can Go Straight to Hell

This town hall meeting at Inglewood High School looks a lot like a Tea Party Rally. Except, the the participants are black and the Congresswoman is Maxine Waters, who tells the Tea Party that, as far as she is concerned, it can go straight to hell.

If the Tea Party and the disaffected Democrats ever got together .... Maybe you'll say it's never going to happen. But a lot of things have happened in this country that you may have never thought would happen.

Sara Palin is Not Officially Running for President

Sarah Palin has not yet announced her candidacy with a nationwide bus tour and a series of YouTube videos:









She has quite a receptive audience with 3,227,212 followers on Facebook and 636,696 on Twitter. What other explanation is there? Others are beginning to notice.

Karl Rove Worries about Electability

Karl Rove is worried about the Republican 2012 Presidential candidates moving so far right in the primaries that it becomes impossible to win the general election.



Who do you think he has in mind? Michelle Bachmann who won the Ames Straw Poll? Ron Paul who came in second? Or Rick Perry who entered the race this weekend? The Wall Street Journal is worried about all three, and Mitt Romney too:

Michele Bachmann "has a record of errant statements (see Battle of Lexington and Concord, history of) that are forgiven by Fox Nation but won't be if she makes them as a GOP standard-bearer" and "her attempt to position herself at all times as the anti-establishment outsider has made her seem on occasion less principled than opportunistic."

Ron Paul "has no chance to win the nomination."

Rick Perry "can sound more Texas than Jerry Jones, George W. Bush and Sam Houston combined, and his muscular religiosity also may not play well at a time when the economy has eclipsed culture as the main voter concern."

Mitt Romney "is a weak front-runner" and "gives little evidence that he has convictions beyond faith in his own technocratic expertise."

Karl Rove wishes the current crop of candidates were more moderate. The WSJ wants a new new crop, but doesn't have a name to go with that wish. It all comes down what we wrote here last month, there is never a generic Republican around when you need one.

And who is the magic Republican who would come into the race? Sarah Palin comes to mind, but she's got electability issues too.

At some point the Republican Party is going to have to come around to an essential truth if it wants to win this election. It doesn't have to love its candidate, it doesn't even have to like its candidate. But it does need to rally around its candidate and vote for him or her.

Republicans, particularly conservative Republican pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter didn't do that for John McCain in 2008. All they did was complain, and that's no way to win a campaign.

Twitter Gap Widens Against 2012 Republicans

The Twitter gap uncovered here two months ago has only widened, with Barack Obama adding three followers in the last two months for every one new Republican follower.

Candidate	Followers on 6/15/2011	Followers on 8/15/2011
Barack Obama	8,628,273	9,654,446
Newt Gingrich	1,324,904	1,327,013
Sarah Palin	561,050	632,179
Jim DeMint	95,266	110,421
Michele Bachmann	52,100	75,731
Mitt Romney	51,580	71,882
Rick Perry	44,438	62,895
Ron Paul	54,455	61,763
Herman Cain	43,542	58,164
Thaddeus McCotter	-	19,726
Rick Santorum	10,529	17,424
Jon Huntsman	704	11,875
Donald Trump	615,671	686,929
Mike Huckabee	165,040	183,523
Mike Bloomberg	99,413	132,520
Paul Ryan	59,094	72,073
Bobby Jindal	59,598	61,530
Chris Christie	42,041	50,832
Tim Pawlenty	40,981	48,992
Jeb Bush	14,937	17,263
Total Republican Followers	3,335,343	3,702,735

Mitt Romney, the erstwhile Republican frontrunner, is merely in the middle of the pack. Meanwhile, Ron Paul as fallen three notches. Thaddeus McCotter debuts higher than the hapless Rick Sontorum and the phantom Jon Huntsman.

Newt Gingrich is an interesting case. Everyone wants to hear what he has to say but no one wants to vote for him.

Michele Bachmann Is Queen for a Day in Ames

This week she was dismissed as the Queen of Rage in Newsweek, This Saturday she was annointed Queen of Ames in Iowa. The results are in from the Ames Straw Poll:

Candidate	Percent	Votes	Quip
Michele Bachmann	28.55%	4,823	"Everything I needed to know in life, I learned in Iowa."
Ron Paul	27.65%	4,671	"We won a historic number of votes today in Iowa!"
Tim Pawlenty	13.57%	2,293	"Our campaign needed to show progress and we did."
Rick Santorum	9.81%	1,657	"Thank you Iowa for the overwhelming support!"
Herman Cain	8.62%	1,456	"This is just the beginning of our efforts in Iowa, and we're coming back soon!"
Rick Perry	3.62%	718	"Just announced I'm running for president."
Mitt Romney	3.36%	567	"Look forward to crossing paths on the campaign trail."
Newt Gingrich	2.28%	385	"Looking forward to taking up the debate again at the Reagan Library."
Jon Huntsman	0.41%	69
Thaddeus McCotter	0.21%	35

How much does the Ames straw poll matter? It shouldn't. It's 16,674 people voting out of a nation of 311 million. And there will be 7 to 10 times that number for the Iowa Caucuses in January. But it does matter.

Michele Bachmann has taken a lot of heat this summer, her win validates her candidacy. That gives her a notch on new entrant Rick Perry for the right to challenge Mitt Romney for front-runner status.

Tim Pawlenty would have done better to have finished 5th rather than 3rd. That would have given him an out to make a graceful exit from the race. Now he has to stay in a while longer.

Newt Gingrich, as I have believed for several months, is just in this for the debates. Whether he finished high enough to qualify for the next debate remains to be seen. He's finished as a candidate to take seriously.

Herman Cain did very well, considering the disarray in his Iowa campaign operation. But politics doesn't make such allowances. His is a case of what might have been.

Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman were punished by Iowans for skipping the straw poll. But will anyone else care? In Huntsman's case, no. In Romney's case, it may actually help him in New Hampshire.

Iowa's importance in this cycle has been diminished. The straw poll went to Iowa's native daughter, a congresswoman in the neighboring state of Minnesota. She must now be considered the front-runner to win the Iowa caucuses. That gives candidates who want to skip Iowa a plausible case that what happens in Iowa is local and has limited national significance. New Hampshire and South Carolina, with their first primaries, have been enhanced.

Update: Tim Pawlenty went to bed still in the race but woke up this morning and saw the writing on the wall (or perhaps read Left Bank of the Charles):

"I wish it would have been different. But obviously the pathway forward for me doesn't really exist so we are going to end the campaign."

Sarah Palin Conquering the Storm

The last time we met Sarah Palin she was storming through Massachusetts on the way to New Hamshire like someone out of the Wizard of Oz. This time she is barnstorming through Iowa.

Sarah Palin may or may not be running for President but her commentaries are beginning to sound like Winston Churchill in the 1930s. Like him she has been pushed aside by her own party but not out of voice. This one she called Conquering the Storm:

Our economic news is disheartening and the task before us can seem daunting, but we must not lose our sense of optimism. People look around today and may see only the negative. They see a culture and a nation in decline, but that's not who we are! America must regain its optimistic pioneering spirit again. Our founders declared that "we were born the heirs of freedom." We are the heirs of those who froze with Washington at Valley Forge, who held the line at Gettysburg, who freed the slaves, carved a nation out of the wilderness, and allowed reward for work ethic. We are the sons and daughters of that Greatest Generation who stormed the beaches of Normandy, raised the flag at Iwo Jima, and made America the strongest and most prosperous nation in the history of mankind. By God, we will not squander what has been given us!

That phrase "held the line at Gettysburg" is not something you hear a lot on lists of American accomplishments these days. It will rub some southerners the wrong way. And that line "By God" will rub others wrong.

Another statement you might not expect from Sarah Palin is in her encouragement to get involved:

Please get engaged in 2012 electoral politics and support experienced, vetted, pro-free market fiscal conservatives who will dedicate all to preserving our Republic and protecting our Constitution.

Yes, the maverick is calling for experience, and she is almost admitting that she got burned on the inadequate vetting of Christine O'Donnell and Sharon Angle in 2010 Senate elections.

Sarah Palin is in Iowa today to visit the Iowa State Fair, not because she is running for President but because she is "excited to try some of that famous fried butter-on-a-stick, fried cheesecake-on-a-stick, fried twinkies, etc." And lest you think the visit is entirely nonpolitical she had this dig for President Obama: "I'll enjoy them in honor of those who'd rather make us just 'eat our peas'!"

In the cattle barn at the State Fair, Sarah was pressed to endorse one of the other Republicans in or about to join the race. She mooed,

"Oh, you know the process hasn't even played itself out yet, so no on premature endorsements. And I haven't even decided yet if I'm going to jump in or not yet."

"There is still plenty of room in that field for a common-sense conservative. Watching the debate, not just last night, but watching this whole process over the past year, it has certainly shown me there's plenty of room for more people."

"Common-sense conservative" is the label Sarah Palin uses to describes herself.