It hasn't always been easy to track what Jon Huntsman thinks about ... well, anything, really. He's a very confusing guy. And that's never been more clear than in the odd way he's gone about his life as an official endorser of Mitt Romney.
Back in January, when Huntsman quit the race, he made it clear that he wanted Republicans to unite behind Mitt Romney, despite what he termed the former Massachusetts governor's "trust deficit."
A month later, however, Huntsman was slagging the GOP for failing to "to put forward big, bold, visionary stuff," adding, "I think we're going to have problems politically until we get some sort of third-party movement or some alternative voice out there that can put forward new ideas."
That statement got Huntsman disinvited from a big GOP to-do in Florida, which in turn led to more grousing from Huntsman, who compared this snub to communist China. (Apparently, Chinese dissidents aren't getting invited to cool Party parties anymore? When will they learn?)
All of this has kept alive this dim notion that Huntsman might, at some point, jump out from behind a shrub and shout, "Boo! I am now running for president as a Whig or something."
Well, for those tracking Huntsman's vacillations on the spectrum between "shit" and "or get off the pot," it seems that he's now leaning in the latter direction, promising to be a totally awesome campaigner for Romney, for whom he has praise bland enough to be served on airplanes. The Deseret News' Lisa Riley Roche has the story:
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Tuesday he's ready to hit the campaign trail for his one-time rival for the GOP presidential nomination, Mitt Romney.
But in a wide-ranging interview with the Deseret News, Huntsman at times offered only lukewarm support for the fellow Mormon who beat him out for the job of running the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
The key phrase from Huntsman? "I see [Romney] as the best of the options we have available." This, he said, constituted a "ringing endorsement."
I bet the Romney campaign can't wait to have this guy "hit the campaign trail," telling voters at every turn, "Mitt Romney is a Republican candidate for president, and I can barely put into words just how enthusiastically I have noticed this!"
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