The Republican strategist who helped Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman prepare for a possible presidential run says the Republican party is in for a devastating defeat if its guiding lights are Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. "If it's 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we're headed for a blowout," says strategist John Weaver, who advised Huntsman and was for years a close adviser to Sen. John McCain. "That's just the truth." Huntsman, a favorite of GOP moderates, left the Republican presidential race last week after accepting President Obama's offer to become U.S. ambassador to China. Before that, Huntsman appeared to be working hard on preparations for 2012. "He had not made a decision to run for president, but he had made a decision to prepare to run," says Weaver. "We were probably a month away from announcing the formation of a political action committee, so we were pretty far down the road."
As an example of that preparation, Huntsman in February traveled to Columbia, South Carolina for a meeting with state business and political leaders, including Henry McMaster, the Republican state attorney general who is considering a run for governor. "A lot of candidates are not very good unless they're on cue cards or talking points, but Huntsman just opened it up for questions," says Richard Quinn, a longtime South Carolina Republican strategist who worked for McCain in 2000 and 2008. "Everybody was extremely impressed…he seemed to me to be a bright hope for 2012."
In March, Huntsman held a fundraiser for McMaster in Utah, the kind of you-help-me-I'll-help-you arrangement that is key for a potential presidential candidate looking to build support in early primary states.
Now, Huntsman's decision to accept the president's invitation to serve as ambassador to China effectively means he is out of the 2012 contest. "President Obama is smart to try to get him out of play, because he's the real thing," says Quinn. Weaver says Obama came up with pretty much the only job that Huntsman would have accepted. "Had it been a cabinet post or any kind of political situation, he would have flatly turned it down," Weaver says. "But this China post -- he's uniquely qualified to serve." As a young man, Huntsman went to Taiwan as a Mormon missionary, where he learned the language and developed a lifelong interest in China. In the 1990s, Huntsman also served briefly as U.S. ambassador to Singapore.
In addition to being out of the 2012 presidential race, Huntsman is also out of the ongoing debate over the future of the Republican party. Quinn, who met with Huntsman during the visit to South Carolina, says the Utah governor "seemed to be highly motivated to try to re-brand the Republican party as an institution that can win elections all across the country." Now, Huntsman won't be doing that, not only because it would not be a proper role for an ambassador but also because he will be thousands of miles away in Beijing.
That leaves the wide-open GOP presidential field even more open than it had been before. Whatever happens, the way forward won't likely be smooth; Weaver's "headed for a blowout" comment indicates the depth of division over the GOP's prospects. "I firmly believe that Huntsman and people like him are the prescription for what ails us," says Weaver. "But I have the feeling that our party maybe won't order that prescription in 2012."
