Huntsman to warn of un-American future if things don't change


LIBERTY STATE PARK, N.J. -- Former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman (R) will launch his presidential campaign by warning the U.S. is about to pass on a less confident, less competitive country to a new generation.

Huntsman's speech focuses principally on the fiscal challenges facing the U.S., according to excerpts released by his campaign. He calls for significant -- though, at this point, not specific -- overhauls to entitlement programs and the tax code.

"For the first time in our history, we are about to pass down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got," he will say. "This is totally unacceptable and totally un-American."

Huntsman will draw on his experience as both a former two-term governor of Utah and as a former diplomat to cast himself as the best choice for president in 2012.


"I've lived overseas, where the view of America from 10,000 miles away is a picture of liberty, opportunity and justice; people secure in their rights and in love with their freedom, who've done more good for more people than any other nation in history," Huntsman will say. "And today, I'm a candidate for the office of President of the United States of America."

Huntsman's decision to announce at this northern New Jersey park, which puts the Statue of Liberty in the candidate's background, is meant to evoke images of President Reagan, who gave a speech here at the height of his 1980 campaign. The speech's focus on red-meat fiscal issues is designed to help gain traction with the primary voters Huntsman will need if he's to snag the 2012 nomination.

Huntsman enters the race will little name recognition. A Gallup poll last month fond only 1 percent of Republican primary voters would choose Huntsman.

Still, he's been regarded as one of the top-tier candidates for the 2012 nomination, in part because of the queasiness he's inspired in President Obama's political advisers. Huntsman, along with ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, are the three Republican candidates whose schedules are monitored closely by the president's campaign office in Chicago.

Huntsman's own advisers are regarded as a professional crew. John Weaver, a longtime strategist for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), is leading the Huntsman operation, with many of Weaver's acolytes in tow.

The campaign will compete for turf with Romney, another prominent Mormon conservative who's running for president. Though the pair have never been especially close, Democrats have actually taken strides this week to link them together, casting them both as centrists who have distanced themselves from previous positions in order to make a play for GOP primary voters. Huntsman likely won't win the party's hardcore Tea Party-oriented voters, but his campaign thinks he can make a play for more mainline, traditional Republicans, especially in states like New Hampshire, where stridency doesn't necessarily translate into votes.

But a big hangup could be Huntsman's time in the administration. John Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, assailed Huntsman on Monday for having served as the president's top diplomat in Beijing. And while many Republicans have publicly given Huntsman a pass -- he explains his service as motivated by a sense of duty -- it's yet to be seen how well that explanation will play with primary voters.

Concern about Huntsman's political formidability admittedly drove Obama to name Huntsman the administration's new ambassador to China in 2009, a move at the time that was hailed for its diplomatic deftness. Huntsman fluently speaks Mandarin and had previously served as an ambassador, and by sending him to China Obama was seen as dispatching a potential rival in 2012.


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