Jonny, We Hardly Knew Ye

News reports indicate that Jon Huntsman will drop out of the GOP presidential race tomorrow. No shock there, although the timing is a bit curious, with South Carolina’s primary on Tuesday. [UPDATE: A reader says that South Carolina’s primary is on Saturday.] Evidently Huntsman wasn’t happy with his campaign’s internal polling.

Huntsman was one of the oddities of this year’s primary season. When his campaign proudly trumpeted his endorsement by the Boston Globe in the New Hampshire primary, any lingering doubt as to whether he had any idea which party’s nomination he sought was resolved. His most lasting contribution to the campaign season was probably his daughters, whose videos in support of his campaign were entertaining.

Huntsman might be a fun guy to hang out with; when your father is a billionaire, it gives you a certain latitude. But he goes down in history–or in my book, anyway–as one more “Republican” politician whose most basic failing was that he thought that actual GOP voters weren’t good enough for him. Like most people with vast inherited wealth, his natural affiliation was with the Democrats.

News reports indicate that Huntsman will throw his support, such as it is, to Mitt Romney. Romney is an entirely different sort of candidate, and we can only hope that Huntsman’s endorsement doesn’t do him any harm.

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