Now This Would Make The Republican Primary More Fun

by Stuart Shapiro

The Republican primary debate the other night was very dull.  Conventional wisdom says that you don’t attack this early in the campaign, and the debate had no confrontations between the candidates.  It appears as if Jon Huntsman will defy the conventional wisdom if and when he enters the campaign (h/t Politico) according to his chief strategist, John Weaver.

“There’s a simple reason our party is nowhere near being a national governing party,” Weaver told Esquire. “No one wants to be around a bunch of cranks.”

Weaver sees Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and the presumed front-runner, as a man afraid to take a stand — or, more accurately, as a man unafraid of taking every stand. “What version are we on now?” Weaver said. “Mitt 5.0? 6.0?”

As a Democrat, Huntsman scares me far more than anyone currently in the GOP field.  That said, it is hard to believe that anyone who believes in climate change, supports civil unions, and most importantly worked for President Obama can survive the Republican primary.  At least he is not going to go down quietly.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.