Why Is Jon Huntsman’s Campaign Going Nowhere?

This headline in the Examiner sums it up nicely: “Huntsman clarifies GOP sanity comment.” When you have to “clarify” your suggestion that your fellow Republicans are crazy, you can hardly expect a lot of support from primary voters:

After speaking to an overflow crowd at a coffee shop here, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman elaborated on recent comments which some Republicans have interpreted as suggesting today’s GOP has lost its mind.

In an interview with Politico Friday, Huntsman said he subscribes to the theory of cycles of history. “I believe we are in one such cycle,” Huntsman said. “I think that cycle ultimately takes us to a sane Republican Party based on real ideas.”

It did not take a stretch of inference to conclude that Huntsman was suggesting the current Republican Party is not sane.

No, it certainly didn’t. And Huntsman’s clarification didn’t help much:

But what about the suggestion that the GOP is nuts? “We are sane when we stand up and we talk about real solutions for the American people,” Huntsman said. “We are insane when we stand up and light our hair on fire, when we engage in political theatrics and soundbites that just don’t make any sense. The American people need real ideas, and they ultimately want to be brought together. They want this country to work.”

So, what Republicans are “lighting their hair on fire” and uttering “soundbites that just don’t make any sense”? What Republicans are tearing the country apart and preventing it from working? And what about the Democrats? When are they “insane”? Huntsman doesn’t have much to say about that.

There is a reason why Huntsman is the Democrats’ favorite Republican. He shares their deep-seated conviction that Republicans are nuts, or as his chief strategist put it, “a bunch of cranks.”

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