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Jon Huntsman ended his campaign for president Monday on a cautionary note to fellow Republicans, urging them to abandon negative campaigning or risk fostering a "toxic" political environment.
The former Utah governor ended his campaign the presidency and endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, calling him the best-suited candidate to take on President Obama this fall.
Huntsman backed Romney, "despite our differences and the space between us on some of the issues" — a nod to the sharp criticism of Romney that Huntsman had voiced at times throughout the campaign.
Huntsman had been one of Romney's chief critics, especially in New Hampshire — the state on which the former ambassador to China hinged his campaign, and which Romney had long been expected to win (and eventually did).
First Thoughts: Huntsman exits the stage, but not to the right
Huntsman accused Romney of having no "core," characterizing his rival as too squishy on important issues to face off credibly against President Obama.
But Huntsman, who started considering ending his campaign a few days ago, started to see Romney as the eventual nominee. The two spoke for about five minutes last night, and Huntsman agreed to record a call targeted for Republican and moderate voters in South Carolina, which hosts its crucial primary on Saturday.
But Huntsman also painted a broader cautionary portrait for the GOP. Having postured himself as the relative centrist in the Republican field, Huntsman's campaign rhetoric often focused on themes of unity and country first. He hammered on those notes in his exit speech.
"As candidates for our party's nomination, our common goal is to restore bold and principled leadership to the White House," he said. "Yet rather than seeking to advance that common goal by speaking directly to voters about our ideas … this race has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks not worthy of the American people."
The sniping between the candidates has become especially public in South Carolina ahead of its primary next weekend. The rest of the field is trying to coalesce against Romney, the winner of the preceding Iowa and New Hampshire nominating contests. A win there for Romney could all but clinch the momentum needed to secure the nomination.
"At its core, the Republican Party is a party of ideas. But the current toxic form of our political discourse does not help our cause," Huntsman said. "Today I call on each campaign to cease attacking each other and instead talk directly to the American people."
NBC campaign embed reporter Jo Kent explains John Huntsman's decision to drop out.
Huntsman's campaign launched with a great deal of media fanfare, not least of which resulted from his decision to resign a spot in the Obama administration to run against a president for whom Huntsman had worked.
But the campaign's launch stumbled out of the gate and never seemed to gain momentum; even Huntsman's last-minute push in the New Hampshire primary ultimately resulted in a disappointing third place finish.
NBC's Jo Ling Kent contributed reporting.
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Little hypocrite Paul should be next. Wants to cut spending, but makes sure he gets his share. Flying around first class pissing away money. Back of the airplane goes the same place as the front and if it don't nothing you can't do about it, but enjoy the ride. Claim is he needed fully refundable fares, he can get coach fully refundable too. A small thing, maybe, but indicative of the fact all these guys are full of @!$%# and look out for number one regardless.
Emil
Are you kidding? Pelosi has a taxpayer paid private jet and you have a problem with Ron Paul flying first class paid for with supporter donations? I am one of those and I could not care less
She was not satisfied with the jet that came with the speaker job because it had to make a stop to get her to California so she ordered her own personal Big Fat 200 seat jet. This gas guzzling jet costs the taxpayers $60,000 ONE WAY!
"A small thing" is a gross understatement. Now a good example of a small thing would be Obama's plan for government cuts. He was going to cut 1000 jobs out of 2.5 million government employees. Yep, a real "take charge" sacrificer there.... Oh yes while still enjoying completely unrestricted government expansion.
Ron Paul never took one dime of bribery..... err campaign money... from a corporation in 30 years of service. Name another candidate who is not bought and paid for with corporate agendas?
So...
Now the dust is settling on the GOP nomination of Mitt Romney. I predicted this months ago (check my past posts).
Why? Because he's the only White Bread choice in the GOP bread basket.
Can't have a black man (hey, they're the enemy! Uh oh, except Cain, while he was popular before...oh you all know about his demise...before that, Bachmann, the Moonbat From Minnesota, then an interruption by The Donald (only TV Idiots follow this Carnival Barker...and there are plenty of those kind of cretins in the GOP reality/unreality idiots out there!). Perry misspoke and Niger Headed (sp, to avoid the block) his way out, and now you GOP'ers have ....
MITT!
My! You must be VERY PROUD!!!
It will be an easy win for Obama in 2012, against GOP'ers!!
Mitt the mannequin or Fuhrer Obama. Nothing but closed door discussions from a small group of ultra-progressive elites to decide the candidate and agenda for the entire Democratic party. All the voters get to do is guzzle the Kool-Aid and wave their pom pom's. They don't even know what the heck they are cheering.
"You have to pass the bill to find out what's in it". I guess that is this "new math" kind of logic only a Democrat would understand. I guess you have to elect "Banker Boy" Obama again to find out what hallow promises he won't back up this time. I guess as long as he does not touch your precious $1.7 trillion dollar deficit spending you could care less about any of the rest.
Black has nothing to do with "worthless". There are white people who are dumb as a post teleprompter readers too and who are also bought off by the bankers, military contractors and oil companies. Blacks have no corner on the market with global corruption. White or black we all thought Obama would stand up these financial terrorists.... but it was/is not to be.
Ron Paul is the only one with the guts.
Well, Mr. Huntsman, who made United States politics so toxic?
Ronald Reagan ran an attack-and-smear campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1980. That is the cleanest goper campaign we have seen in the last 32 years.
And don't forget the lying. To a right-winger the only bad lie is the one not told. I offer you Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner as evidence.
Lee Atwater is the guy who dumped the pot of oil down the slippery slope. He's the one who ran Reagan's smear compaign, and he was Karl Rove's direct mentor.
A shame - Huntsman was certainly the smartest and most honest of the Republican candidates. And apart from Fred Karger and Gary Johnson, the least bigoted too.
Yes, he will be taking a seat with the rest of the moderate republicans, behind Powell.
I hate to see him go so soon. Now, I'm left with Gingrich to entertain me with his expert viritrol.
I guess God made my favorite comedian quit. I miss Bachman. But, the world is full of gays that need prayed over, I suppose. Come on, you knew she was a comedian. Don't tell me; you took her stand-up seriously?
Since corporations are people too and the GOP are running that serial killer Romney, Gingrich will be chewing all over that. At least I have that to look forward to.
Please, candidates, hold on till the last minute. We need you to drag this out to the bitter end!
Huntsman decries toxic politics, then supports the candidate which is most toxic of all.
Huntsman only ran to secure himself a GREAT position in the coming administration. By flopping his votes to Romney against everything he said he is playing the "safe bet" on getting appointed to the position of his choice.
Romney has not even said the words "Federal Reserve" the entire campaigning through all the debates. The media has kindly left him alone on any questions regarding the bankers. Romney with Goldman Sachs being his largest contributor has a significant conflict of interest which will become very apparent if elected to office.
Goldman Sachs is the second largest contributor to Obama only behind the Federal Employee System. No conflicts of interest there. If Romney was elected you would not even notice a difference between all the decision made in the last 3 years.
We elect lobby interests and not representatives of the people. Just look at the lobby's of your candidate. That is who will be running the country. The candidate will simply become their "marketing manager".
Huntsman knows it isn't Romney running those toxic ads it is the super pac that Romney doesn't control. Romney isn't personally attacking anyone. The super Pacs that are supporting him on the other hand are vicious. He should do whatever he can to influence them but personal contact with them is prohibited by law, so the law should be changed, as both Romney and Gingrich have suggested.
As for the religioius zealot comments, if religion is going to become an issue then lets make it a real issue. Romney's religion believes the US constitution is an inspired document and created a free people here in the US because free people are free to worship God as they choose. Obama on the other hand attended Reverend Wright's chruch where hatred of america and "Fairness doctrine" was taught. So which religious principles are best for the country. A return to the constituional principles and the freedom they are there to protect, or a "change" where government's role is to decide for us what is "fair".
So far I don't like Obama's definition of fair, I don't think anyone is entitled to something that belongs to someone else. I think that those who have plenty have a moral obligation to share, but the government has no right to make that decision for them.
The trouble is the evangelical right has taken worshiping God has become controlling the military to attack, wipe out and control other religions abroad. It is also using the military to favor or advance the financial or military needs of other countries based on their religion. This is also feeling entitled to something that belongs to someone else. Be it welfare or warfare it is wealth redistribution to benefit special interests.
This is NOT what the founders meant by religious freedom. Practicing religion also has nothing to do with taxing one person to further your globalistic religious goals. When you start taxing people to further religious based agendas it has gone WAY too far and that has nothing to do with religious freedom. Neither does having monster sized business's who are religious based that are tax exempt. That is not religious freedom. That is simply manipulation of the tax system to further religious agenda.
The beauty of the Constitution was it kept sacred the rights of the individual over the wants or needs of the majority or government. Just because a large group has an agenda does not make it right to extort via taxes from the minority or individual who do not share their spending priorities.
Obviously we have all but completely abandoned this part of the Constitution in favor of "mob rule".
Huntsman was the only candidate that seemed to have anything close to a rational thought process. The others just seem to be mentally unstable. I would have liked to see him continue running.
This is what happens when you tell the most ill-informed Americans that they is smart. :-)
Obama had two full years of complete control, the only people who blocked some of his insane ideas like CAP and TRADE were democrats. He got everything else he wanted, which is the reason we have increased our deficit by $5 trillion dollars and still have 8.5% unemployment. You only have two choices, Obama is clueless or his is very intelligent and deliberately trying to destroy this country by turning us into a clone of Europe despite clear evidence that EU policy is failing-resulting in the destruction of the middle class and the creation of a two class society, the ruling class which is the government bureaucracy and the rest of us who have to accept the scraps that the government decides we are worthy to have. ANYONE except Obama.
That "anyone but" philosophy has enabled the same banking, oil, Walstreet and most of all military contractors to back mainstream candidates from both party's giving the voters an illusion of choice. If the GOP crams Romney down our throats as the candidate there will be no difference for the next 4 years. You will just have a different face giving you the excuses.
The mainstream party candidates are bought and paid for by the same lobby's and special interests at the top. The only differences are in the smaller lobby differences. The Federal Reserve,Goldman Sachs, Fannie/Freddie, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Haliburton etc etc etc etc etc will all still control the economy under a Romney type candidate.
This is specifically why the GOP is pushing Romney. He is and will play ball with all the legacy global corporations who have owned the GOP and Democratic party's for many decades now. Only a "rebel" like a Ron Paul will get you any change. If the party elites from either party like the candidate... we have problems because that means the corporate lobby's like the candidate.
DO NOT VOTE for a Romney thinking things will be one bit better. The same corporations will run everything under Romney as they did with Obama. There will be no changes that these lobby's don't want.
Come on Huntsman, dont even start with that "toxic politics" crap. The reason you quit the race was because you were trailing Stephen Colbert in the polls. You cant even beat a comedian. Your a loser, now go home and shut your mouth.
Huntsman, I used to think you were a decent man among the muck of Republican Clown School Presidential Politics; however, you are first rate prevaricator and gross hypercrite. You continually denounced and attacked Willard Romney. Now, just like Romney, flip-flop, drop out and support him after explaining why he should never be President and is unelectable. I have zero respect for you and your ilk, you disgust me.
I didn't realize that there were sooo many RACIST people in the world -- but after listening to that crowd, I'm convinced!
Racist???? I see a lot of religious bigotry type comments, but I haven't seen any racist comments at all, please point one out, I would be interested in seeing what you think of as racism---thanks.
I'm talking about the people standing up for Gingrich about the 'food stamp' comment -- maybe not so racist as pure IGNORANCE. (wrong post)
Hmmmm, Amazing how he complains of a "toxic" political atmosphere but that didn't seem to bother him when he was leveling lies and innuendos at Obama. Wonder why he doesn't think those little ditty's weren't toxic. And let's not forget all the toxic mud he was slinging at his fellow opponents in the Republican Party. But I y, I guess he calls that "campaigning" on his part.
Idiot never should have got in the race. This man is as two-faced as they come. Worked for Obama, praised him for giving him the job and then turns around and tries to throw the man under the bus. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him and he is spineless, to boot.
You are right FOXX2. His wife is hot though. She looks like she should be in the porn business.
Huntsman will be Romney's VP pick. Mormons stick together.