Manchester, N.H. — Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman crisscrossed the Granite State this weekend, attending small house parties, posing for photographs with children and smiling astride a Harley Davidson motorcycle as he seeks to heighten support for an all-but-official presidential candidacy. Appearing virtually everywhere in the first-in-the-nation primary state except for the Republican presidential debate scheduled for Monday in Manchester, Huntsman said he is “likely to enter the arena” in about a week and a half.
GOP insiders insist that Huntsman, polling in low single digits, remains a dark horse in a muddled Republican field that has yet to generate widespread excitement among conservative voters.
But as President Obama’s appointed ambassador to China, Huntsman presents a challenge to the conventional wisdom that Republican hopes of recapturing the White House require a piercing, verbal assault on his former boss.
“In a time of war, when the president of the United Sates asks me to serve, I’m going to,” Huntsman told The Washington Examiner outside a house party in Salem.
But when asked to define Obama’s economic policies, he added, “It’s a failed effort,” stressing a 9.1 percent unemployment rate and $14 trillion national debt.
The exchange highlights the delicate balancing act in calling for a campaign of “humanity and civility” while hoping not to alienate Republican loyalists suspicious of his intentions and angry with Obama.
Touring a Harley-Davidson store in Manchester on Saturday, Huntsman was given the chance to tout his business chops over those of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but simply said, “I’ll let the voters decide.”
Campaign aides say the peacekeeper approach will persist in hopes that Huntsman will win over voters tired of politicians sniping at each other.
Huntsman plans to skip the Iowa caucuses, another early test of presidential credibility, calculating his opposition to ethanol subsidies popular in Iowa would make it too difficult for him on terrain that’s also better suited for more conservative candidates.
He intends to focus on New Hampshire with hope that a victory there will give him momentum heading into other key primaries in South Carolina and Florida.
Patrick Griffin, a GOP consultant and senior fellow with the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, said the Huntsman campaign could turn his Obama connection to political advantage.
“Huntsman is in a position to respectfully criticize the president better than anybody else,” said Griffin. “He can say, ‘Look, I know this guy, but there are areas where he is wrong and we disagree.'”
Huntsman, Romney and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty are the most mainstream candidates in the Republican primary race, Griffin said. And all have passed the “podium test,” meaning, “They can stand on stage with Obama and make a credible case for fixing the economy.”
But Huntsman has much work left to distinguish himself in a crowded GOP field. Huntsman lacks the name recognition of Romney, a favored son of New England, and shares a centrist, business-oriented message that overlaps with much of Pawlenty’s platform.
And for some voters, Huntsman’s ties to Obama are unforgivable no matter how much he touts a pro-life, pro-gun, tax-reform image.
“Just couldn’t do it,” said Rick Harris, a Manchester construction worker. “It’d be too weird. It’d be like I was signing off on more Obama. No disrespect to the guy — what’s his name again? — but we need a clean break.”
