Jon Hunstman: Not on Arizona Primary Ballot, Losing to Colbert in South Carolina Poll, Global Warming Realist… but Willing to Flop, & Occupy Supporter?

 

Jon Huntsman has hardly gotten any attention in the course of the freak show we can call the GOP primaries. However, that has changed a bit since yesterday, when he received a notable percentage of the New Hampshire primary votes (17%).

huntsman gop primary

We’ve actually written about Huntsman a number of times, as he’s the only candidate who has firmly stated that he trusts the 97% of top climate scientists who say that humans are, without a doubt, causing potentially catastrophic global warming and climate change (well, it’s already clearly catastrophic). He’s also strongly criticized his opponents for their outright rejection of science. But then he turned around and flipped on it all when in the midst of a roomful of science haters. A little concerning….

But, back to today. So, Huntsman is the latest to surprise the crowd and surge a bit in a GOP primary season in which everyone bobs to the top to say hello to Willard “Mitt” Romney. However, he’s got some problems ahead.

Huntsman Not on Arizona Primary Ballots — Petitions Not Notarized

For one, his team didn’t get his petitions notarized in Arizona, so Huntsman won’t be on the primary ballots there. In Rick Perry style, woops….

“Secretary of State Spokesman Matthew Robert told CNN Huntsman’s petitions were not notarized and therefore rejected by the office,” CNN reports.

“Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller on Tuesday said the campaign believes it submitted the required forms properly and ‘are challenging the ruling and expect to be on the ballot.'”

However, with no appeals process for this, the challenge will have to go through the courts.

Stephen Colbert Beating Huntsman in South Carolina Poll

To make matters worse, comedian Stephen Colbert (who is obviously not running in the GOP primaries) is beating Huntsman in a South Carolina poll. Yikes.

“A new poll in which the satirical talk-show host is theoretically pitted against the actual Republican presidential candidates finds Colbert ahead of Jon Huntsman in South Carolina,” The Wrap Media reports.

“That could be a foreboding sign for the former Utah governor, who joked that he would benefit from “The Colbert Bump” after guesting on “The Colbert Report” in October.”

Of course, Colbert wouldn’t win either. Colbert was polling at 5% with GOP primary voters, Huntsman at 4%.

“Leading the pack in the poll, released Tuesday, is Mitt Romney with 27 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich (23 percent), Rick Santorum (18 percent), Ron Paul (8 percent) and Rick Perry (7 percent). Last is former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, who also trails Colbert, with 1 percent.”

Huntsman on Occupy’s Side?

Huntsman seems to have some common sense about another issue other than global warming — the banks. As the subheading of a Christian Science Monitor piece notes: “Huntsman criticizes the bailouts and proposes a breakup of Wall Street’s biggest banks. Why isn’t this guy leading the polls?”

“His fellow candidate Jon Huntsman penned an op-ed for Fox News that’s been getting a lot of attention as it makes its way around the web – because he is the ONLY candidate talking about the fact that we’ve made our Too Big To Fail banks even Too Biggier.”

Huntsman may well be the GOP’s best candidate in awhile, and certainly this election season. And he might even be better than Obama on some issues. But he certainly isn’t going to win the GOP’s presidential nomination. So, barring any dramatic changes in the wind, I think this is the last time I’ll be writing about him. So long, Jon!

Jon Huntsman photo modified from Gage Sidmore photo, AttributionShare Alike Some rights reserved. 

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