Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is betting everything on Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
Huntsman made a calculated, and I believe correct call to bypass the Iowa Caucus. The large numbers of prevalence of evangelical voters within Iowa would’ve made a sustained campaign by the moderate Huntsman futile because he isn’t conservative enough to appeal to the primary voters in Iowa.
This leaves Huntsman camping in New Hampshire, hoping for an eleventh hour miracle to salvage his presidential campaign. If Huntsman doesn’t win there, his campaign is effectively over because he has staked so much on the state.
At the moment, Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead over Ron Paul and others. Too bad, because Huntsman is my preferred Republican presidential candidate.
Huntsman is a moderate, something the Republican party seems to be lacking these days. He has intimate knowledge of China and the challenges that the United States will face there in the coming years and decades.
As governor of Utah, he has experience being the chief executive of state, one of the key criticisms of our current president.
The Republican party is failing to grasp that they need a moderate to win, and I’m not sure I’d put my faith in Massachusetts Mitt, if I were them.
Showing posts with label New Hamphire primary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Hamphire primary. Show all posts
Friday, January 6, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Iowa and New Hampshire in New Politics
There has been considerable debate about the role of Iowa and New Hampshire with the changing face of politics. Not long ago, presidential candidates launched barnstorming campaigns across the entire states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Now, because of the increased influence of super PAC’s and the sheer amount of money involved in presidential campaigns, there’s less of a need to mount the state-wide bus tour because you can just run a bunch of ads if your pockets are deep enough.
The greater number of debates is also giving voters more of an opportunity to size up the candidates before voting, I leave it to the readers to determine whether this is a good or bad thing.
There is a danger in this, because candidates who aren’t in Iowa and New Hampshire enough can be seen as aloof or detached, which is obviously never good for a campaign.
And the new debate heavy format has obviously caused candidates to falter (Rick Perry.)
Iowa and New Hampshire still matter. Without Iowa, Rick Santorum is a footnote candidate in otherwise fairly obvious race. Santorum ran a very traditional campaign leading into Tuesday night’s caucuses and almost won.
This indicates that the “old way” of doing things in Iowa can still pay major dividends, even if Santorum is now the exception, not the rule.
Now, because of the increased influence of super PAC’s and the sheer amount of money involved in presidential campaigns, there’s less of a need to mount the state-wide bus tour because you can just run a bunch of ads if your pockets are deep enough.
The greater number of debates is also giving voters more of an opportunity to size up the candidates before voting, I leave it to the readers to determine whether this is a good or bad thing.
There is a danger in this, because candidates who aren’t in Iowa and New Hampshire enough can be seen as aloof or detached, which is obviously never good for a campaign.
And the new debate heavy format has obviously caused candidates to falter (Rick Perry.)
Iowa and New Hampshire still matter. Without Iowa, Rick Santorum is a footnote candidate in otherwise fairly obvious race. Santorum ran a very traditional campaign leading into Tuesday night’s caucuses and almost won.
This indicates that the “old way” of doing things in Iowa can still pay major dividends, even if Santorum is now the exception, not the rule.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)