Free Republic

When George Romney—former American Motors CEO, cabinet secretary, governor of Michigan, and Mitt Romney's father—ran for president in 1968, the candidate told reporters: "I am completely a product of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." Four decades later, Mitt Romney isn't speaking quite as bluntly. But the 2012 presidential candidate is serious about his Mormonism, leading to serious discussion among evangelicals about whether they're willing to support a Mormon for the highest office in the country. Here are two views . . . YES TO A MORMON | BY TIMOTHY LAMER On Sept. 14, 2001, three days after...

The push continues in the political arena to minimize what have commonly been designated social issues and replace them with what are advertised as the more pressing issues of the day. The economy has grown to be the number one factor of importance in the American people’s mind and if we are not careful, the American people may vote for the first presidential candidate that promises better future economic times. The economy is truly a critical issue but what is more critical is how we will judge the criteria for selecting those who will govern this country and just who...

And they don't want to have a debate unless Perry - who's got the best job creation record of any sitting governor - is there to steal the show. ...he doesn't want another GOP "dark horse", former Obama China envoy Jon Huntsman, a skilled debater who recently announced his own candidacy, to get a jump on Perry, pulling the party left, rather than right, where so many want it to go. Huntsman, of course, is already something of a party gadfly for having served in the Obama administration, and for having endorsed its "stimulus" package - in fact, he's even...

In case you haven’t heard by now, Jon Huntsman Jr. is running for president. Now that Huntsman has joined fellow Mormon Mitt Romney, you’re probably going to have more than one conversation with a neighbor or co-worker about these prominent Mormon candidates.Here are some tips for talking to your neighbor about a Mormon candidate. 1. Be informed about Mormon candidates. Your neighbors and co-workers who are not Latter-day Saints may assume that you support political Mormons because you are one, and they may use a candidate’s policies or promises to start a conversation. If you do endorse a Mormon candidate,...

Why are so many conservatives wary of Jon Huntsman? Certainly the former Utah governor's positions on issues like cap and trade and civil unions trouble conservatives of both the economic and social variety. But there are other candidates, like front-runner Mitt Romney, whose positions also cause conservatives to grumble. So why does Huntsman stand out? One answer is the company he keeps. Despite his solidly conservative views on many issues, Huntsman has gathered a group of advisers and supporters from the moderate-to-liberal side of the GOP spectrum and has received largely favorable treatment in the political press. Many conservatives look...

Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign is firing back at a top aide to Republican rival Tim Pawlenty who suggested Monday that Huntsman's skepticism about the ongoing U.S. mission in Afghanistan is "isolationist." In a Monday appearance on MSNBC, Pawlenty senior adviser Phil Musser previewed a "major" foreign policy speech that the former Minnesota governor is slated to deliver tomorrow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Musser said Pawlenty plans to "push back the isolationist strand that we are seeing in Republican Party," a remark that appeared to be aimed, in part, at Huntsman's call for swift troop reductions...

I am sick and tired of hearing Jon Huntsman Jr's. name mentioned in the 2012 Presidential election. He has little chance of breaking ten percent in any opinion polls, and many of his policy positions are in direct opposition to rank-and-file Republican principles. Especially in the more Conservative Republican Party of 2012. His entire 2012 campaign is the creation of liberal media types obsessed with sabotaging our electoral chances next year by saddling the base with someone just as detestable as Obama. And Jon Huntsman Jr., who until recently served as Obama's Ambassador to China for two years, fits that...

Shunned: Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina said Sunday he's not supporting Jon Huntsman of Utah for president. "For me, he's out," DeMint said on CNN's "State of the Union." DeMint is asking Republican presidential candidates to sign a pledge vowing to "cut, cap, balance" the federal budget -- without raising taxes. So far, just Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain have embraced the pledge. Huntsman last week told CNN in a separate interview that, "Other than the pledge of allegiance, I don't...

Link only, per FR posting rules

Rick Perry may just be the guy. The country's longest tenured governor, from its second-largest state, is generating a lot of buzz in conservative circles as he contemplates entering the wide open Republican presidential primary. There are plenty of reasons that Perry is an attractive option: he is a no-nonsense decision-maker with solid conservative credentials. A man who not only speaks about family values, but lives them, Perry's power to persuade voters to see things his way is proven -- battle-tested in a state known for independent-minded citizens. But what serious political analysts on both sides of the aisle will...

Why are so many conservatives wary of Jon Huntsman? Certainly the former Utah governor's positions on issues like cap and trade and civil unions trouble conservatives of both the economic and social variety. But there are other candidates, like front-runner Mitt Romney, whose positions also cause conservatives grumbling. So why does Huntsman stand out? One answer is the company he keeps. Despite his solidly conservative views on many issues, Huntsman has gathered a group of advisers and supporters from the moderate-to-liberal side of the GOP spectrum and has received largely favorable treatment in the political press. Many conservatives look at...

August 16, 2009 Dear Mr. President - I am most grateful for the graciousness and kindness you have shown me and my family - particularly your confidence in my ability to represent you in China. Mary Kaye (the wife) and I will begin our journey tomorrow - leaving behind a State we love - but anticipating an extraordinary experience in Beijing. You are a remarkable leader - and it has been a great honor getting to know you - Jon

Harry Reid rises above partisan politics and declares Jon Huntsman to be his preferred choice for the GOP nomination. The fact that Reid's son was chosen by Huntsman to be on Utah's Board of Regents and that Huntsman's family contributed nearly $25,000 to Reid's reelection campaign was not a consideration in his choice of Huntsman. Reid said on Tuesday, "If I had a choice in that race, I'd choose Huntsman over Romney." Huntsman's family had a choice in the 2008 elections and they chose Reid and the Democratic Party. The Huntsman family are long time supporters of Reid and the...

I have a lot of respect for Sarah Palin. She was put in an impossible position by Sen. John McCain in 2008, and she survived. I see somewhat similar situations on the local level all the time. Good, honest people decide to run for office and don't understand what could happen when their words appear in print, and then they get themselves in all kinds of trouble. Palin was the governor of Alaska, but I would imagine the difference between being governor of Alaska and running for vice president on a national ticket is greater than someone who has never...

Looking at the current GOP field, I share what seems to be the ubiquitous feeling of “blah.” Apart from Michele Bachmann, no one in the field appears to be serious about beating Obama, and the two guys getting the most love from the mainstream media, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, are destined to lose if they secure the Republican nomination. To be honest, just the fact that the mainstream media keeps them front and center should be warning enough for every lucid Republican. After all, this is the same way the media carried John McCain through the primaries in 2008:...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said this week he prefers Jon Huntsman to Mitt Romney in the GOP Mormon presidential primary, has taken a lot of money from the Huntsman family, and the former Utah governor appointed Reid’s son, Josh, to Utah’s Board of Regents. So no wonder Reid said Tuesday, “If I had a choice in that race, I’d choose Huntsman over Romney.”

Washington (CNN) - In an interview after his presidential announcement Tuesday, former Utah governor and ambassador to China Jon Huntsman tried to downplay a letter he wrote to President Barack Obama in August 2009 calling him a "remarkable leader." Huntsman told Fox News that he was only alluding to the fact that the president would appoint a Republican to "a position as important and sensitive as the U.S. ambassadorship to China."

In case it’s not bad enough that the MSM wants him to be our nominee or that he actually worked for Barack Obama. John Huntsman wrote a letter to Obama in 2009, calling him a “remarkable leader”. "You are a remarkable leader,’Huntsman wrote in the note, which was leaked to reporters earlier this year. He underlined the word ‘remarkable." Awwwwww. As we head into what will be the most vicious, acrimonious re election campaign in American history, how nice that Mr. Huntsman shares his warm and fuzzy feelings for Obama.

Jon Huntsman wants you to know he rides a dirt bike. On real dirt! He's Salt of the Earth. Grease of the Garage. Dragster on the Dunes. Huntsman's runnin' and gunnin' for president. But underneath the Steve McQueen costumery, this made-for-cable-TV Moderate Speed Racer is a creaky old John McCain on Wheels. The former Utah Republican governor and Obama ambassador to China is the answer to an election-year problem that doesn't exist. The quadrennial "problem," in the minds of Beltway GOP strategists and liberal media chin-pullers, is that the Republican Party isn't moderate, civil, self-critical or inclusive enough. Huntsman is...

[...] The former Utah Republican governor and Obama ambassador to China is the answer to an election-year problem that doesn't exist. The quadrennial "problem," in the minds of Beltway GOP strategists and liberal media chin-pullers, is that the Republican Party isn't moderate, civil, self-critical or inclusive enough. Huntsman is the latest no-labels flavor of the month, a straw man of the same people who have spent the past year smearing entitlement reformers as senior citizen-killers, budget hawks as Hitler's spawn, border-security activists as racists, and leading GOP women as sluts, nuts and bimbos. Just like the failed 2008 GOP contender...