Out of the Hunt

            He never really had a chance, and perhaps that’s what made Jon Huntsman so compelling. Sure, he was a dull candidate; but he became the kind of political icon we all adore. He was the free falling loser who could do whatever he wanted before he hit the ground. He called out the stupidity of the other GOP candidates and of far right ideologies by claiming that global warming was real and that he himself believed in evolution. He went on Letterman and played rock and roll piano. He became a media darling for things he stood for but could never accomplish. He was the candidate we all really liked but would never bet on. And he’s doing himself a disservice by backing Romney.

            The two are polar opposites. Romney is the archetypal presidential hopeful who walks away from questions he doesn’t like. Huntsman broke the mold this election season by admitting he doesn’t believe all the crazy things everyone else in the GOP says they believe. Romney has been eyeing the White House for years with the goal of electing more Republicans; Huntsman served as Obama’s ambassador to China. Romney only wants to win, but you get the feeling that Huntsman actually wanted to help the American people. Sure, he's greedy and very well off. But Huntsman stood for something that neither Romney nor the rest of the GOP hopefuls could ever stand for: a type of conservatism founded by actual beliefs and not merely partisan differences. I honestly believe that Huntsman was in it to do some good, and not merely see the other side lose.

            He was everything we could have wanted in a real candidate, not just a Republican candidate. And that’s why he never caught fire, except for a spark here and there. He wasn’t even the least bit polarizing. He wasn’t contentious. He wasn’t the norm. He wasn’t as interesting as Herman Cain, Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann. He didn’t have the name recognition of Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney. He was just Huntsman, a well to do western politician who couldn’t cut it with the big dogs but hopped into the ring anyway.

            So goodbye to Jon Huntsman, the patron saint of the coulda-shoulda-wouldas of the world. A hero to the losers. A guy we’d all like to have a beer with. Not a real candidate, but a guy who could have been a halfway decent president. And that's all we can really ask for these days.