An official announcement made yesterday sealed Jon Huntsman’s fate as a potential presidential candidate. He bowed out of the race after a marginal 17 percent voted for him in New Hampshire. According to BBC, he failed to garner any more than 2 percent approval in many national opinion polls. This presents a surprising turn of events considering Huntsman’s experience in the political sphere. Formerly the governor of Utah, he was President Obama’s ambassador to China, impressively fluent in Mandarin.
Nevertheless, despite his demise as a candidate, he has consequently endorsed Mitt Romney, a strong favorite to become the Republican presidential candidate. Huntsman also commented on the overarching nature of the Republican candidate race, condemning its “toxic discourse.” While it is regrettable that politics has descended into candidates’ criticizing each other personally and not politically, this trend is by no means galvanizing to the norm of political manipulation we have come to expect from all parties involved.
Ron Paul and Rick Perry do not seem to have made a lasting impression on a significant majority of the voting public, possibly signifying the race will now narrow down to Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney remaining as main contenders. However, Huntsman was shrewd in his immediate backing of Mitt Romney as a candidate. In spite of disparity in their respective policies, a show of solidarity from the Republicans will not go unnoticed. Furthermore, if Huntsman’s supporters begin to endorse Romney, it will provide an additional boost to his campaign, which could prove a significant development.
Of course, any new support will not be unwavering. The spotlight will imminently fall to Mitt Romney to adequately use the new wave of support to his advantage, or he could face a political demise of his own. While these elections, followed by the main event in November, will rest on a number of extenuating factors, it would be unwise to disregard this small example of strategy as irrelevant. There is no doubt the nation’s attention will be directed to Romney’s headquarters in Boston’s North End in the very near future, now he must do something with it.
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