17.1.12

Whither the Huntsman “Ticket to Ride”?











By John W. Lillpop


As if the Republican nominating process were not goofy enough, Jon Huntsman added to the strangeness by ending his bid for the nomination on Monday.

Goofy, because just last Tuesday Huntsman was celebrating his third-place finish in New Hampshire with a nostalgic reference to the Beatles’ 1965 hit record, “Ticket to Ride.”

As reported at the reference, in part:

“THE path ahead for US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was cleared of another hurdle yesterday when Jon Huntsman withdrew from the Republican campaign trail and threw his support behind the man who was previously a bitter rival.

Barely four days after declaring that Mr. Romney’s policies were making him “completely unelectable” as the Republican candidate for November’s election, Mr. Huntsman performed a massive about-face and praised the former Massachusetts governor’s credentials.

The announcement comes just five days before the crucial South Carolina primary, at which the surging Mr. Romney, winner of recent contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, is predicted to all but guarantee his party’s nomination to oppose president Barack Obama.

Mr. Huntsman, a Mormon former governor of Utah and a recent US ambassador to China, admitted that his own decision to enter the race had been “the longest of long shots”.
“Today our campaign for the presidency ends but our campaign to build a better and more trustworthy America continues,” he said at a press conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.”

Excuse me, Governor, but just how is your campaign to build “a better and more trustworthy America” enhanced by endorsing a man whose polices make him completely unelectable?

If as you said last week, Romney is indeed unelectable, that means that Barack Obama will win.

With all due respect, sir, how can another four-year term of Marxist amateurism at the hands of the incompetent and insufferably arrogant Barack Obama make America better and more trustworthy?

And what pray tell happened to your vaunted “Ticket to Ride,” sir?



http://www.scotsman.com/news/international/jon_huntsman_withdraws_from_race_to_top_job_1_2060169