Jon Huntsmen 2020

[Libertarian Socialist Dem]

If Hillary (or any other Democrat) wins in 2016 could they be desperate enough to win an election that if Huntsman ran again he'd have a shot at being there own version of Bill Clinton/the DLC?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Never heard of that Huntsmen fellow.

[Brewer]

Nope.

[OpinionatedGuy]

Bob McDonnell has more clout in the GOP from his jail cell than Huntsman does.

Also, Bubba didn't even really start the "DLCization" of the Democrat party either, the stepping stones toward it were there before him. No such thing exists in the GOP.

[Maxwell]

Huntsman 2012 was such a disaster, so no.

Now, I could see Charlie Baker 2020 becoming a thing in an extreme circumstance...

[justfollowingtheelections]

Doesn't his daughter work at MSNBC?

[Simfan34]

Never heard of that Huntsmen fellow.

Nor have I.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

Never heard of that Huntsmen fellow.

it's plural. jon huntsman and all of his clones are going to run, which will make campaigning a lot easier

[Mr. Morden]

Never heard of that Huntsmen fellow.

it's plural. jon huntsman and all of his clones are going to run, which will make campaigning a lot easier

Those huntsmen are commonly referred to as "The Sweeps":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQBKBKRLikU&t=2m47s

[Oak Hills]

This should be in Presidential Election Trends.

[Citizen Hats]

Jon Huntsman spent most of his campaign in 2012 insulting the sort of people he needed to vote for him.  He could have sold his record to those people rather credibly. It's not like Utah was some sort of spendthrift state when he was in office, and in that respect he was arguably the 'severe conservative'.

But, instead of talking about things that matter to republican primary voters, he called them all stupid

[IceSpear]

Jon Huntsman spent most of his campaign in 2012 insulting the sort of people he needed to vote for him.  He could have sold his record to those people rather credibly. It's not like Utah was some sort of spendthrift state when he was in office, and in that respect he was arguably the 'severe conservative'.

But, instead of talking about things that matter to republican primary voters, he called them all stupid

FF!

But seriously, insulting the Republican electorate seems to be a good strategy in some parts of the country. How did the white poors in Appalachia respond to the Romney/Ryan agenda of "takers vs. makers", "lazy welfare leeches", "47% of the country pays no taxes, is dependent upon government and will never take responsiblity for their lives", etc. etc.? With a historic landslide, of course.

[emailking]

Doesn't his daughter work at MSNBC?

Yes. She's on a panel show and is the (very moderate) Republican.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Doesn't his daughter work at MSNBC?

Yes. She's on a panel show and is the (very moderate) Republican.

I think you mean the Republican that is even more liberal than her Democrat co-hosts.  Much like her father

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Doesn't his daughter work at MSNBC?

Yes. She's on a panel show and is the (very moderate) Republican.

I think you mean the Republican that is even more liberal than her Democrat co-hosts.  Much like her father

Yep, the man who wants to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a liberal because he supported civil unions in 2012

I remember reading on this forum in 2012 how people actually recognized him for what he was - arguably the most right-wing candidate (bar Ron Paul's out-of-century stances that barely stand on a political spectrum) in the 2012 field. WaPo accurately portrayed him as that and then he said that in the debate and the media gave him no chance nor did the fundies who hated him for working with the Kenyan (on foreign policy of all things!) instead of impeding his every initiative.

[hopper]

I thought about this...if Republicans can't win by the presidency by 2020 Huntsman might be their nominee in 2024 or 2028.

[Beezer]

Bill Clinton had a DLC by his side because the party had a fair share of moderate to conservative members in Congress. Where is that impetus for change going to come from in the GOP of 2020?

[hopper]

Bill Clinton had a DLC by his side because the party had a fair share of moderate to conservative members in Congress. Where is that impetus for change going to come from in the GOP of 2020?

Well the Republicans nominated Nixon in '68 right after the Goldwater debacle in '64.

[TNF]

There's literally no impetus for the Republican Party to become Democrats-lite. Unlike the period in which the Democrats became Republicans-lite (the 1970s onward), the Republicans still maintain an organic link with their natural constituencies, are in no real state of electoral decline with their key voter base (i.e. the white middle and upper class), and have still proven themselves able to decisively win elections in spite of liberal claims to the contrary (2010, 2014).

The Republican Party likewise understands how to govern in such a way as to maximize its own political strength (i.e. enacting voter ID laws to prevent Democrats from voting, using gerrymandering to guarantee its control of the House and of state legislatures, enacting right-to-work legislation to weaken organized labor and shatter what little working class identity remains). Deciding to be kindler, gentler Republicans (or meaner Democrats) would probably weaken the Republican brand and make them far more vulnerable, rather than strengthen them, which is why the fantasy of a liberal or moderate GOP is just that - something liberals wish would happen but never will so long as the GOP can maintain its current posture as the party of small business, extractive industries such as oil, mining, gas, and white racists.