Obama’s campaign manager: Huntsman was biggest threat

[inactive]

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/55317160-90/americans-appeal-campaign-election.html.csp

Washington • President Barack Obama’s campaign manager said Tuesday that he saw former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman as the biggest potential threat to the president’s re-election.

Jim Messina said Huntsman’s appeal to moderate voters could have dug into the Democratic president’s margin with that swath of Americans, whom Obama handily took to win a second term

"We were honest about our concerns about Huntsman," Messina said at an event sponsored by Politico. "I think Huntsman [as Republican nominee] would have been a tough general election campaign."





This rehearsed line (said by Rush and others) about moderates going to Romney is bologna. If Romney had won the moderates (not necessarily independents), he would have won the election. Plain and simple, the GOP ostracized the person who would have best connected them to the average voter. Will they make the same mistake in 2016?

 

[TerryMiller]

I doubt that the moderate Republican has a real chance in that case. Being moderate didn't help McCain. In my estimations, those that campaign on conservative ideals have a better chance of winning. Ford, Dole, George H.W. Bush, and McCain are all good examples of losers.

 

[okietool]

As long as he had that wife and those daughters, he had my vote, just so we could see them on tv more.
I know I'm a pig.

 

[inactive]

I doubt that the moderate Republican has a real chance in that case. Being moderate didn't help McCain. In my estimations, those that campaign on conservative ideals have a better chance of winning. Ford, Dole, George H.W. Bush, and McCain are all good examples of losers.

I think Hunstsman is moderate in a different way than McCain. McCain still has a lot of hardline, military man in him. Hunstsman is a diplomat first and foremost. I think that is an important distinction.

 

[donner]

Huntmans never could have won the primary because candidates have to run to the base to win. Look at how each GOP candidate beat up on each other. Even Newt was badmouthing Bane Capital for making money.

Huntman would have been a far better contender in the general election because, as many have pointed out, the lack of a third party would have helped him since his 'base' would vote for him no matter what (well, the majority of them would have). Since he is generally considered to be more moderate, i think that his position would have helped win more independents and some of the democrats who were angry at Obama and just wanted a more fiscally conservative President.

The primary system continues to hurt the GOP since it requires the candidates to take positions they can't defend in the general election. I don't know if Santorum really believes half the things he said, but I was considering voting for Obama if he had won the nomination. Birth control, rape, reproductive rights and many others issues in the primary painted the GOP into a corner it couldn't escape during the general election.

 

[HMFIC]

They're blowing... they'd love to have Huntsman to go against in 2016 and that's what this is about.

Huntsman is Romney's third cousin once removed (no ****, I'm serious) and his Daddy is a Billionaire (literally) and he's worked in every Republican administration since Reagan and shares pretty much the same views as Romney (and he's Mormon too).

They're like the same dude...

 

[ignerntbend]

The Tea party folk are already making noise about running a real conservative next time. Had it not been for the tea party, the Democrats would have lost the Senate in 2010. Reid himself was packing his bags till a tea party whackado won the Republican primary.
The Democrats should have lost the Senate in 2012. Again, tea party to the rescue. Republican Rape coalition. Lady parts repell rape sperm in legitimate rape. Rape that results in pregnancy is a gift from God. The rape coalition was a gift from God for the Democrats.

Snowe would have run for another term as Senator from Maine, but she was a RINO hounded out of the party.
She was a pretty reliable Republican vote when they needed her,and she could have counted toward a Republican majority, but, Oh well. She was ideologically impure. Now she's been replaced by a Greenie. LOL Tea Party.




Look at Tester in Montana. Big ole farm boy gun toting democrat.He was picked to lose, and should have. He was a little ideologically impure [a DINO] himself, but we'll keep him.
The message that the Republicans need to take from this election is that they need to run real conservatives next time.

 

[Hobbes]

The Republican party must be purified.
Purge all the heretics, intellectuals and believers in science.

Only then will the GOP rise to greatness.

 

[ignerntbend]

Even Newt was badmouthing Bane Capital for making money.


.

Yeah, Newt went all Das Capital on Romney, and who can blame him. I have a freind in the cab business in Texas and he recently had Newt and Calista in the car. "What'd I Say?" by Ray Charles came on the radio. Newt and the Mrs were just BUTT rockin in the back seat, like they never heard that before.
He's a sincere man with a bad haircut. Don't count him out.

 

[aeropb]

probably true