COMMENTARY | Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah and former ambassador to China, has decided to withdraw from the race for president and to throw his support behind Mitt Romney, according to the Washington Post. It was all in all a concession to reality.
Huntsman, though he certainly had the experience in foreign and domestic policy to be president, never quite was able to justify the idea of his being president. He ran as a moderate, a curious strategy considering the conservative nature of the Republican electorate. Romney is considered a moderate by many. Indeed that has been an accusation in campaign ads by his opponents. But even Romney is running to the right, emphasizing cutting government and taxes as his main issues.
The polls have not been kind to Huntsman. Nationwide, he is in the low single digits, according to Gallup Tracking. He is at 5 percent in South Carolina in the latest Rasmussen poll.
Huntsman was an also-ran in Iowa, with 0.6 percent, due to the fact he did not contest the Iowa caucus. He came in third in New Hampshire, getting 16.9 percent behind Ron Paul and Romney.
In the end, there was no path to victory for Huntsman. The smooth, moderate, Mandarin speaking politician lacked widespread appeal, especially in the southern states with primaries coming up. It just took him until today to realize what most people had already concluded.
The question arises, who does Huntsman's withdrawal benefit? The obvious answer would be Romney, who is touted as a candidate who can appeal to the same kind of moderate independents that Huntsman had in his corner.
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air doubts Huntsman's withdrawal will have much of an impact at all. His support was almost nonexistent and consisted of disaffected Democrats, some of them who still seem to like Obama and hate the tea party.
On the other hand, those Democrats will remain disaffected with or without Huntsman in the race. Where will they go? Perhaps to Romney in the end. Or they may just stay home on Election Day, not being enthused about any candidate.
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