Huntsman Hits Romney Where It Hurts

by Stuart Shapiro

Last week Governor Jon Huntsman called Governor Mitt Romney a “perfectly lubricated weather vane.”  Now he’s got an ad up backing up his comments.

Brutal and accurate.  As Steve Benen notes, we may see much of this ad again, even if Governor Huntsman soon fades from the scene as expected.

To reiterate a point from last week, Romney seems to have two main flaws as a candidate. He’s a cowardly and uncontrollable flip-flopper with no core convictions, and he has an atrocious record on job creation. I’d argue that Huntsman is hitting Romney on both counts more effectively than anyone in either party.

If Democrats — Obama’s re-election team, the DNC, allied super PACs, etc. — are smart, they’re taking note at what Huntsman is up to. Huntsman almost certainly won’t be the Republican nominee, but his content should probably be used again in 2012.

It is such a wonderful attack, that one has to wonder if Huntsman entered the race at the behest of President Obama.  Or perhaps, Huntsman, eying 2016, wants one of the other seven candidates to beat Romney so that Republicans will be ready for a moderate candidate the next time around.

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.