Huntsman has tried to eschew the moderate label. He isn’t too keen on any ‘label’ that the media might bestow. If anything, he is trying to portray himself (accurately as his record shows) as a consistent conservative. Have a look at the ads his campaign have created against Romney’s flip-flops, and the ad that his Super PAC broadcast in New Hampshire. They’re all about being a conservative.
Comparing his policy positions and past to that of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, it is difficult not to conclude that Will, on this topic at least, has a point.
As for your other point, if you felt insulted, then I don’t blame you for not warming to the guy. I didn’t take his comments that way. I agree with his basic premise that the Republican Party cannot allow itself to be painted by the Democrats and the media, as the ‘anti-science’ party. Because that’s the spin they are taking. Now THAT I find insulting.
Then Georgie Will has gone senile.
The is nothing at all “conservative” about Huntsmann. His big govt statist solutions on everything from Bank Regulation to the myth of global warming expose him as just another Democrat Lite RINO.
He’s right that he has an actual conservative record—about two-thirds of the time. But he was a big spender in Utah, he’s a squish on foreign affairs (no Ron Paul mind you, but about as bad as an over-interventionalist in the other direction), and most egregiously he’s terrible on illegal immigration.
I still think he’s no worse than Gingrich or Perry or Romney at this point, but he’s sent me back examining again Bachmann or Santorum or what Palin said in her two interviews this week.
I didn't come up with the moderate label, he did, on CBS, he called himself, at various points, "right of center" and "center right", he embraced being characterized as a moderate, and seems to have referred to himself as such at least once.
That said, I don't dislike the guy, my inlays (to my surprise, know him), and speak positively and highly of him (downside, one of them is a Romney supporter, lol). I think he could make a good CofS, and he is apparently close friends with Rick Perry, he also comes from a very wealthy family. That said, I'll look at him, but he needs to back off on this global warming crapola, and attacking people who don't drink the climate change kool-aid, either way, his campaign isn't looking to good either, but I won't rule him out.
FWIW, I don't hold working as an ambassador to china under Obama against him, if anything, it probably helped give him an inside look at the administration, and I do prefer someone who puts their country first and foremost. Its also easier to safeguard and watch your countries interest on the inside then on the outside.