Gov. Huntsman (R) Interview

[Joby]

Q: Who do you think are the leaders of the party right now?

A: It’s a jump ball. I really do think every Republican governor who is doing something in his or her state in creating real, workable models on any of the issues that we talked about, they are the leaders because they’re doing something.

Q: You’ve changed your position on gay rights. What prompted that?

A: Well, I’ve always been in favor of greater equality. My first year in office I ran a…reciprocal beneficiary rights piece of legislation. It failed, but my first year in office I wanted to see if we could do more in the name of individual rights. And I’ve always thought that we were a little bit behind in terms of equality for people born under the same constitution.

Q: In December you talked about people 40 and under having a very different view on the environment. Is there a similar generational gap on gay rights?

A: You hit on the two issues that I think carry more of a generational component than anything else. And I would liken it a bit to the transformation of the Tory Party in the UK…They went two or three election cycles without recognizing the issues that the younger citizens in the UK really felt strongly about. They were a very narrow party of angry people. And they started branching out through, maybe, taking a second look at the issues of the day, much like we’re going to have to do for the Republican Party, to reconnect with the youth, to reconnect with people of color, to reconnect with different geographies that we have lost.

How do you win back the intelligentsia? How do you win back some of the editorial boards of major newspapers that Richard Nixon used to carry?

Q: Why do you think winning back the intelligentsia matters?

A: I think we’ve drifted a little bit from intellectual honesty in the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt, for example, where they would use rigorous science to back up many of their policies, and in this case many of their environmental policies. Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency. We declared the war on cancer.

A lot of intellectual rigor went into the policies of those days, and we’ve drifted a little bit from taking seriously the importance of science to buttress much of what we’re doing today.

Q: It sounds like what you’re saying is that Republicans need to win the educated class of America.

A: Absolutely. The country, I do believe, is a centrist-right country, for the most part, when you look closely at the demographics…I’m not sure that we have connected fully, meaningfully and in any complete way on the issues of the day.

POLITICO interview: Gov. Huntsman - Alexander Burns - POLITICO.com

Politico calls him the 'fastest rising GOP star you've never heard of." With all the talk about how the GOP lost because it wasn't right-wing enough, I think it's interesting how the governor of Utah (UTAH!) is calling for a more moderate approach.

Compared to Palin or Romney, I think he is a breath of fresh air in a party that hasn't had one in thirty years. Also, I like how he notes the differences with the Nixon GOP as opposed to the more, how should I say this, anti-intellectual caricature it has become. He's got some baggage regarding a Presidential run (he's a Mormon), but he's also a billionaire so he could enter himself into the debate pretty easily if he wanted to.

Now, I really don't know the inner politics of the GOP well, and the politics of Utah I could care less about. But it seems to me that the best thing for the Republican party to do is have the BIG fight in this next upcoming Presidential election cycle once and for all. It will then be determined whether the GOP wants to remain a distinctly minority party in this country, or would like to move back into many regions that have wholly kicked them out, due, in some cases exclusively, to social issues.

Of course, that's a long way off and Obama has plenty of time to fail and give them the WH on his own, but I would like to see it go forward.

Thoughts?

 

[Cold Highway]

Huntsman is a good guy, and Im glad to see him do a turn around on gay rights. I certainly will be keeping my eye on him, he certainly has good promise.

 

[DarkWizard12]

I would say the Democrats sould be afraid, very, very, afraid

 

[WI Crippler]

I like his last name.

 

[Arch Enemy]

I would say the Democrats sould be afraid, very, very, afraid

Why would we not be afraid?

 

[DarkWizard12]

Why would we not be afraid?

I said you should be afraid.

 

[ALiberalModerate]

I said you should be afraid.

Only if the Republican base has enough sense to back a moderate in 2012.

 

[DarkWizard12]

Only if the Republican base has enough sense to back a moderate in 2012.

Liked they backed a moderate in 2008, oooh, wait wait, like how they backed a moderate in 2000 and 2004? Yea, great plan mate :roll: