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Not Happy with the GOP

In an interview Sunday night, former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman had some things to say about the current state of the Republican Party.

At his first presidential debate, he was struck by the question “Is this the best we could do?”

Apparently it was, since any deviation from party dogma was swiftly punished. When he said he believed in science, people “look at you quizzically as though you’re an oddball”.

He also mildly compared the GOP to the Chinese Communist Party. After he said some things the party didn’t like, he was disinvited from a Florida fundraiser in March. “That is what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script.”

He jokingly blamed his failed candidacy in part on his wife telling him that she would leave him if he abandoned his principles. “She said if you pandered, if you sign any of those damn pledges, I’ll leave you.”

Finally, he commented that Ronald Reagan would “likely not” be able to win the Republican nomination today, given the current political climate.

UPDATE: More commentary from the person who conducted the interview on Sunday night.

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This was written by Iron Knee. Posted on Monday, April 23, 2012, at 9:59 am. Filed under Irony. Tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

5 Comments

  1. Don wrote:

    My favorite quote? “I don’t know what world these people are living in.” I’m pretty convinced they don’t live in the same reality sphere that I do.

    Monday, April 23, 2012 at 10:59 am | Permalink
  2. Duckman wrote:

    Jon is awesome and I really wish he teams up with a high profile democratic and runs independent

    Monday, April 23, 2012 at 1:55 pm | Permalink
  3. ebdoug wrote:

    Jon, Snowe, Collins. They stick to their principles. they aren’t going to let Karl Rove tell them what to think.

    Monday, April 23, 2012 at 4:46 pm | Permalink
  4. Arthanyel wrote:

    It is people like Huntsman and Snowe that kept me in the Republican party from 1978 to 1998. There are many intelligent, principled people that just happen to be a bit conservative and feel that the old “tax and spend” liberal agenda (which, frnakly, very few liberals actually HAVE) needed to be opposed. They all were Republicans back then.

    Now most of us are independants and regularly bemoan our bi-polar politics.

    The funny thing is that Barack Obama is actually a fairly pragmatic moderate in real action, and therefore closer to what I think we need as President than our disfunctional politicians want us to believe.

    Monday, April 23, 2012 at 7:24 pm | Permalink
  5. Duckman wrote:

    So this came out today:

    http://news.yahoo.com/why-jon-huntsman-is-leaving-the-gop–not-because-they%E2%80%99re-communists-.html

    I personally would absolutely love for him to head a new party

    Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 2:43 pm | Permalink