(Newser)
–
Jon Huntsman’s campaign did not get off to an auspicious start yesterday. Before his announcement speech, staffers were passing out materials that misspelled his name (“John” instead of “Jon”), notes Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, and when the actual speech kicked off, all the major networks turned away in six minutes or less. So they missed his central theme: “We will conduct this campaign on the high road,” he proclaimed. “I respect the president.”
“By the caustic political standards of 2011, it is a radical proposition,” writes a skeptical Milbank. “I wish Huntsman luck in this noble pursuit, but the high road almost always leads to political oblivion.” Others, like Orrin Hatch or Richard Lugar, have tried to play nice, and their campaigns were “quickly forgotten.” It’s not like Huntsman’s got a head-start here: One Iowa poll “found total support for Huntsman of one—not 1%, but one person.”
