Bye Bye Jr: 3 Reasons Jon Huntsman Withdrew

Almost a week after a disappointing finish in the New Hampshire primary, the former Utah governor will throw his weight behind Mitt Romney. Here are three reasons why he never caught on.

Official Huntsman Campaign photo.

Good for him for accepting reality faster than Rick Perry.

After throwing all his hopes in New Hampshire and finishing a disappointing 3rd place behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in the state’s primary, Jon Huntsman is suspending his campaign. The New York Times reports that he will endorse Mitt Romney at a speech in Myrtle Beach later today.

Despite the wave of shock felt in the aftermath of this development, it should hardly come as a surprise and will probably have zero impact on the race. Huntsman polled at about 3% in state and national polls – not even the margin of error by some standards. His campaign was operating on a shoe-string budget and, as a result, failed to compete anywhere outside of New Hampshire.

I’m reading the two or three countless theories being thrown about as to why Huntsman never caught on. Just a few moments ago on Morning Joe, someone said he wasn’t “shrill” enough – that his restrained behavior almost eliminated him by default because of the crazy-status of today’s Republican party.

Another theory is that he automatically disqualified himself because he served in the Obama administration as the Ambassador to China.

Besides Rachel Maddow’s smart, spot-on analysis of Jon Huntsman’s campaign missteps last week, both of these are inaccurate. I’d hardly call Mitt Romney “shrill,” for example, and one could almost argue that Romney cruised to the top of the polls simply by showing up and standing on stage at debate performances and looking all presidential and stuff. As far as being disqualified because of his former Ambassadorship, there’s a great chance that Republican primary voters have failed to learn this gem of information because no one knows who Jon Huntsman is. And that, ladies and gentlemen, has been the problem. Here are my three reasons why Jon Huntsman never caught fire in the primary race.

He lacked a message that urged a call to action.

Jon Huntsman makes his compassionate, compelling plea for the presidency.

Can I share with you a campaign email from the Huntsman team that I received back in October?

“We need a nominee who can beat President Obama and unite Republicans, Independents and disaffected Democrats, just as Ronald Reagan did. We don’t need hope and hype anymore; we need solutions. We need a principled leader who has a set of core beliefs they can draw upon in the Oval Office. We don’t need a nominee who is choosing his positions like a weather vane blowing in the political winds.

If you agree, I hope you will support my campaign for President with an immediate donation before midnight of $10, $25, $50, $100 or more. Our support in New Hampshire is on the rise and you can feel the excitement on the campaign trail. What we need now are the financial resources to compete. 

So please endorse my campaign with an immediate donation of $10, $25, $50, $100 or more before our midnight fundraising deadline. 

I am counting on your support.

Sincerely, Jon Huntsman

PS Our support in New Hampshire is growing. What we need now are the resources to take advantage of our momentum on the ground. Please help us with an immediate donation before midnight. Then please forward this email to at least five of your friends. Thank you in advance!

Who wrote this email!? This has all the urgency of a guy gunning for that promotion from head cashier to shift supervisor. But does it make the case for someone aspiring to lead the free world? Not so much.

“If you agree, I hope you will support my campaign for President.“ A man who knows he is making a strong case for the presidency doesn’t use terms like “if you agree, I hope…” Also, isn’t Jon Huntsman a rich man? The redundancies here (care to make an immediate donation? how about making that immediate donation? oh, by the way, tell a friend and make an immediate donation.) make it hard to believe that there are real live people being paid out of his father’s Super PAC super rich pockets to produce such amateur work. I’m not speaking solely about this one missive – all of his campaign updates read like he hired the kids from the local high school to devise his strategy.

You sometimes got the impression that you were reading a Land’s End catalog.

Take one look at the merchandise section on his site. There is some really cool, well-designed stuff on there! I actually considered buying a black t-shirt with the futuristic ‘H’ emblazoned across my chest.

That's not me in this photo, by the way.

The problem is that it looks like more thought went into the design of that gigantic “H” than into an actual message, policies, and overall strategy. While you’re selling can coolies and tumblers and mugs and lapel pins via Paypal, no one knows who you are. But you’ve got nice shirts, sir.

His campaign always seemed to be running from behind.

Another not-so-smart highlight of the Huntsman brand would be this graphic that served as the marquee banner to all new visitors of Jon2012.com last week:

Jon Huntsman appeals to folks to help him air an ad.

The issue here? It was still the site’s lead story just hours before the New Hampshire primary. At that point, the ad should have been streamed on his site automatically, complete with links to voting sites as well as photos of enthusiastic voters amped to show their support for the former governor. Instead, curious visitors to his website were being asked to donate money to air an ad in a state that would be forgotten in a few hours? I’m glad I bought a sandwich instead.

According to his own official bio, “Utah… was named the best-managed state by the Pew Center” under Huntsman’s leadership. Yet, the man couldn’t hire anyone to manage his little website with basic updates that were, in fact, up to date? I don’t get it.

I think it’s admirable that governor Huntsman managed to build his support from 1% in Hew Hampshire to around 20% in an organic fashion. That’s remarkable. And I believe that if the New Hampshire primary were to be held tomorrow as opposed to last week, he could’ve won, or came in a close second to Romney. I’m also not suggesting that it’s an easy task to run for president.

But there were obvious signs from day 1 that Huntsman’s team was always a day late and a dollar short. It wasn’t because he was steady or sober or calm and collected. It was a lack of discipline in messaging, direction, conveying urgency, management of the campaign strategy – those are the reasons that Huntsman never moved beyond last place in the polls. And that’s disappointing from someone who seemed primed to make the 2012 race interesting and close.

We’ll see if and how much he improves come 2016.