Jon Huntsman Bets Big on New Hampshire

This has been the most quixotic campaign of the season. Huntsman's the best dressed, but with his brand of moderate Republicanism, he's 30 years too late.

At Wall Street Journal, "Clock Ticks for Huntsman in New Hampshire" (via Google):

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has staked his presidential hopes on New Hampshire, a strategy akin to Rick Santorum's shoe-leather campaign in Iowa that ultimately proved successful.

But despite his ubiquity here, Mr. Huntsman's level of support and his appeal to voters have been shaky.

Mr. Huntsman has been a constant presence in New Hampshire since the summer, and because the state's voters tend to decide late in the process, Mr. Huntsman says he is confident he will emerge a front-runner in the final days before the Tuesday primary. But Mr. Huntsman had only 7% support in Wednesday's Suffolk University tracking poll of the New Hampshire GOP race, a loss of three percentage points from the day before.

The Suffolk poll showed Mitt Romney holding his ground atop the GOP field, with 43% of the likely primary voters, while all others lagged far behind.

"Who would have guessed that Rick Santorum, tooling around in his pickup truck, would have gone from nowhere to practically winning the caucus?" Mr. Huntsman said on CBS Wednesday. "New Hampshire's going to result in the same thing" for him, he added. Mr. Santorum finished in second place in Iowa, a hair behind Mr. Romney.

Mr. Huntsman presents his policy ideas without the sharp ideological overtones of some of his rivals, and he puts little emphasis on the social issues that have defined the candidacies of Mr. Santorum and some others. The former U.S. ambassador to China says he would simplify the tax code, jump-start manufacturing and wind up the war in Afghanistan. Unlike some of his rivals, he has said he defers to the judgment of scientists on climate change, and he has supported civil unions for gay couples.

Right.

Which is why it's one and done in New Hampshire after next Tuesday.

I'm not sure what the guy's trying to get out of this. Maybe a job in the Romney State Department?