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.
Fair enough. Nobody’s perfect. If you ultimately decide that you prefer Rick Santorum or Michele Bachmann as the Republican nominee for the presidency ahead of Jon Huntsman, then good luck to you.
I agree Huntsman is vulnerable to the charge of “cheating” on Utah’s own balanced budget amendment, although in fairness the state deficit came more as a result of recessionary drying up of tax revenues more than a governor spending whenever he liked it as some Republicans have portrayed.
By the same token, he does need to address the debt problem with some more consideration than the talking points of a Balanced Budget Amendment, Ryan Plan (also Palin’s solution), etc. Tax reform, regulatory reform and energy independence to get a jump start but the country isn’t going to grow out of a death spiral without being more big and bold in addressing the problem of government,