James Fallows at the Atlantic tells everyone to “calm down” over speculation that Ambassador Jon Huntsman will run for President in 2012 because it’s not going to happen.
Fallows says that Huntsman presents a good long-term prospect for the GOP, but 2012 is out of the question.
Let's start with the most obvious deal breaker. The basic narrative of the "out" party, when a first-term president is running for a second term, is "Your Administration is Wrecking Our Country! We can't stand Four More Years! We need a total change!" That is what every Republican will have to say about the Obama Administration.
Huntsman is part of the Obama Administration. He is right in the middle of dealings with America's most important foreign-policy partner/challenge. So in the GOP Primaries, how exactly is he going to out-anti-Obama anyone else in the field, given that he has served Obama (and, yes, the country) so loyally? The retorts from all the other Republicans are almost too easy. "IfAmbassssadorrr Huntsman is so concerned about the Obama threat to America, then why,...?"
Fallows argues Huntsman 2016 makes more sense because Huntsman really has no standing to challenge his current boss for the top spot. Additionally, he wonders if Huntsman is planning to run in 2012, why is he still serving the Obama Administration as Ambassador?
Finally, he says Newsweek should have applied the “are you kidding me” test to the article that launched all of this speculation before publishing it.
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