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Every detail of Jon Huntsman’s long-awaited campaign launch was meticulously planned, except of course for one minor detail: the misspelling of the candidate’s name. Members of the media were handed a press pass that read “John Huntsman for President"  -- adding an unnecessary H in the candidate's first name.

WASHINGTON — The top elected Mormon in the Democratic Party says the country is not ready for fellow Mormon Mitt Romney as the Republicans’ presidential nominee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters on Tuesday that Romney “doesn’t know who he is.” As one example, Reid said Romney supported gay marriage when he was governor of Massachusetts but now opposes it. In fact, Romney did not support gay marriage but did say during his 1994 Senate race that he would be stronger on gay rights than his opponent, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Harry Reid, asked to rate his fellow Mormons Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, picks the former Utah governor: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, reviled by conservatives for ushering Democratic legislation through Congress during Obama’s first two years in office, told reporters Tuesday that he’d pick Huntsman over GOP rival and fellow Mormon Mitt Romney. “If I had a choice, I would favor Huntsman over Romney,” said Reid, who like Romney and Huntsman belongs to the Church of Latter-Day Saints. The Senate leader proceeded to take a broad swipe at the former Massachusetts governor, whom he described as a “a man...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman joined the Republican presidential contest on Tuesday, pledging to run a civil campaign and claiming that he and President Barack Obama both love the United States but have different visions of its future...

Perhaps the biggest surprise at last weekend’s Republican Leadership Conference was the second-place straw poll finish of Jon Huntsman. Continue Reading He bailed out on his scheduled appearance, is little known among the conservative activists who dominated the event and his closest competitors for the non-Ron Paul vote were grass-roots favorites Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain. So how did he snag so many votes? Partly due to the effort of a New Orleans Republican named Bryan Wagner. An influential former city councilor and big McCain backer, Wagner is close to former Rep. Joseph Cao. In an interview, Wagner said he,...

Moderate Republican candidate (he announces this week) Jon Huntsman is going to have a really tough time rallying movement activists when David Axelrod is hitting him with quotes such as this. A senior strategist to the president’s reelection campaign, Axelrod said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Huntsman’s recent criticism of Obama’s “failed” economic policy is “in conflict with what he communicated to us in 2009.” Axelrod recalled talking with Huntsman, then the U.S. ambassador to China, during a trip to Shanghai in late 2009. “If he had suggestions on the economy, he had...

SALT LAKE CITY — Jon Huntsman Jr. is a high school dropout, a Harley-riding ex-governor and a diplomat whose last boss was President Barack Obama. Now this Republican wants Obama’s job. ... Authenticity also defines Huntsman, friends say, and helps explain his success as a moderate politician in solidly conservative Utah, where he was re-elected with 75 percent of the vote in 2008. Huntsman resigned from the governor’s mansion less than a year later when Obama tapped him to serve as his ambassador to China. He gave up the diplomatic post in Beijing after less than two years to make...

Yeah, this guy’s got lots of appeal.

President Barack Obama's chief campaign strategist is dismissive of the Republicans who want his boss' job, saying they are eager to criticize the Democratic incumbent without offering substantive ways to help the country. David Axelrod says it's too early to start sizing up the competition, but he took on the emerging field of candidates when asked to assess the GOP' first major debate of the campaign season last Monday in New Hampshire. Republicans at that forum condemned Obama's handling of the economy and pledged to repeal his health care overhaul....

Republican Leadership Conference kicks off C.J. Ciaramella Top Republicans will flock to New Orleans today for the Republican Leadership Conference, where presidential hopefuls and GOP leaders will try to woo the party faithful during the three-day event. The annual conference, formerly the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, has become a bellwether for the Republican Party, especially because of its audience straw polls. Presidential candidates speaking this year include Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman. (DNC chair looking forward to working...

Although he was slated to speak at a major gathering of Republicans taking place in New Orleans this weekend -- just days before the official rollout of his presidential campaign -- former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman has bowed out. The reason, according to sources close to the former Utah Governor and soon-to-be presidential contender, is a “bad cold.” Huntsman was scheduled to speak at the Republican Leadership Conference on Friday.

Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman was a top executive of a large chemical conglomerate that is paying $33 million to settle a lawsuit alleging price-fixing. Huntsman International LLC recently agreed to pay the money to settle a suit filed by several competitors. The lawsuit accused Huntsman International and other companies of antitrust violations by fixing the price of urethane chemicals, used in various products. Huntsman was a top executive in the family's business conglomerate for about five of the six years covered by the lawsuit's allegations. He confirmed Tuesday that he will run for president.

<p>Huntsman, the former Utah governor and China envoy, is testing whether Americans want a different kind of politician — someone who doesn’t yell but is a global thinker who can solve the country’s difficult problems. And he thinks he’s that someone.</p>

It is beginning to appear like civil center-right Republicans may indeed have a horse in the 2012 race -- Jon Huntsman. The more I learn about him, the more I get my hopes up that center-righters may finally find a champion in American politics. The former ambassador to China and governor of Utah brings a soft-spoken, moderate approach to politics. While the rest of the Republicans continue to disappoint (Palin is nuts, Pawlenty isn't worldly enough, Gingrich flamed out ... ), I am growing increasingly interested in Huntsman. Phil Elliott of the AP has been covering Huntsman (along with all...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Gone are the days when ethanol topped the list of policy priorities in Iowa, the corn-rich state that hosts the leadoff presidential caucuses. But apparently some of the 2012 Republican presidential field isn't giving up on the issue, magnifying the relevance of ethanol subsidies to suit their campaigns. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty calls ending the subsidy a hard truth, while former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman says his opposition to the subsidy is why he won't bother to campaign there. But powerful Iowa Republicans also want to phase out the federal tax credit for ethanol,...

LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE, New Hampshire -- A few hundred New Hampshire Republicans mingle loudly on a sunset dinner cruise, oblivious to the scheduled speakers and to the lovely, green landscape rolling by. The best discussions, as usual, are located near the bar, where veterans of primaries past are gossiping, complaining and thoroughly enjoying their disproportionate influence over American politics. Mitt Romney, one overhears, didn't fill the audience for his town hall meeting. Herman Cain is getting a noisy buzz. Rudy Giuliani may run, if only to erase the memory of his last, disastrous campaign. Tim Pawlenty is the most sophisticated networker...

“I came today...,” former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. told the crowd in a downtown Washington ballroom Friday, “...to introduce myself and my family.” There was...nothing simple about it. The audience..was...politically oriented Christian conservatives. Huntsman...is a Mormon. SNIP The other Mormon in the race...Mitt Romney...also addressed the group. But where Huntsman made overt references to God, Romney made none. Instead, he emphasized economic themes... SNIP Conservative Christians constitute a crucial part of the GOP base, one that can win elections if they are motivated to turn out. They represented as much as a third of all those who showed up...

Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman who helped Democrats capture the White House in 2008, warns that Sarah Palin could defeat President Obama in 2012. Dean says his fellow Democrats should beware of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that Obama would crush Palin in a general-election contest next year. “I think she could win,” Dean told The Hill in an interview Friday. “She wouldn’t be my first choice if I were a Republican but I think she could win.” Dean warns the sluggish economy could have more of a political impact than many Washington strategists and pundits assume. “Any time...

The GOP race now has two Mormon candidates – Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. Predictably, the question of whether or not America is ready for a Mormon President has been raised on both sides of the Atlantic. To be fair to the critics, the theology and history of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints is a little eccentric. -SNIP- But Romney and Huntsman should not run away from their church. Indeed, they would do well to put it front and centre of their campaigns, to challenge the fragile tolerance of the 21st century electorate. They should seize this opportunity to...

There's a phase of the campaign where it makes sense to play nice, but this is going above and beyond the call: Rumblings of a long-standing feud between Jon Huntsman Jr. and Mitt Romney are overblown and untrue, Huntsman said Thursday as Romney made his White House intentions official. In fact, in a Tribune interview, Huntsman called Romney a "great man" who is "terrifically talented."