Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Jon Huntsman both want the second ticket out of New Hampshire, and they’ve taken to mocking each other in the days leading up to the election in an apparent competition for independent votes.
The two campaigns exchanged derisive emails. “Jon Huntsman is not a serious candidate for president,” wrote Paul spokesman Gary Howard in a terse, four-line “FYI”. “He could not compete in Iowa. He has not qualified for the Illinois ballot, the fifth largest state. He has not qualified for the Virginia ballot, the 12th largest state.” End of message.
Huntsman, whose press shop opened the day attacking Romney, fired back that Paul is a “fringe candidate” given the conspiracy-themed newsletters published under his name. “Paul’s words, whether he owns up to it or not, speak for themselves,” said Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller wrote, to introduce a series of quotations from Paul’s old newsletters, including a complaint that Martin Luther King Day is “Hate Whitey Day” and a suggestion that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was “setup by the Israeli Mossad” (Khalid Sheikh Mohommed, who later planned 9/11 under Osama bin Laden, organized the attack).
Paul’s campaign countered by turning Huntsman’s admitted hesitation at the idea of voting for Paul into an attack on his time serving as President Obama’s ambassador to China. “Maybe that’s because [Huntsman] probably favors his old boss, whom he calls ‘a great leader,'” Paul’s spokesman suggested.
