Whether Liddy, Abby, and Mary Anne — more commonly known as the Huntsman Girls — can do much damage to a campaign that has never left the launch pad is doubtful, but they are certainly a liability in one area: They are not funny. In his classic “schoolmaster” sketch, Rowan Atkinson tells his students that we can tell “Antony and Cleopatra is not a funny play” because “if Shakespeare had meant it to be funny, he would have put a joke in it.” The Huntsman Girls might take note, for theirs is a big stage on which to fail.
The trio represents a wasted opportunity for their father, and for a primary season that could do with some cheering up. The girls are young, beautiful, and charming, and they could quite easily be an asset. Instead, they are repeatedly missing the mark. Even the most charitable of viewers would be hard-pressed to laugh out loud either at their Twitter feed or their two YouTube videos — one a parody of the bizarre Mark Block “smoking” video, the other a reworking of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexyback,” entitled “Huntsman’s Back,” in which the girls first take shots at the other Republican candidates and then lionize their father. “We’re bringing Huntsman back,” the lyrics run. “The rest of them is one big circus act. We’re right behind the guy who’s right on track.”
Advertisement
Except that, if we’re honest, Jon Huntsman isn’t “right on track,” and the girls aren’t “behind” their father, but instead an orchestrated — and perhaps too prominent — part of his floundering campaign. Sideshows work only when the main attraction is sufficiently adept at pulling focus to render its adjuncts second fiddle. Jon Huntsman is not, and he’s left himself at risk of being overshadowed by his family. The girls’ aim might be to give their father a much-needed boost, but in actuality they are stealing some of the limelight for themselves and doing very little that is constructive with it.
An example: “How does Romney know anything about China?” they tweeted during one debate. “He’s only been there once and that was for the Olympics. Panda Express doesn’t count.” Devoid as it is of humor, this just comes across as smug — not a trait of which the campaign is exactly in dire need. Their father has a similar problem: His jokes don’t quite hit their target, and he is left looking awkward or conceited — or both. Like father, like daughters.
Such similarities are not all that surprising, as, in all likelihood, the lines are coming from the same place. Jon Huntsman is many things, but funny is not one of them, and apples do not fall far from the tree. Even if the Huntsman Girls are not an explicit contrivance of their father’s campaign, although it is eminently possible that they are, it is unlikely that they are given much latitude in deciding what they say, shoot, and tweet. The various reports that campaign aides are becoming jittery about the trio, even that one had accused them of “going rogue,” are thus highly doubtful, but, regardless, prime among the articles of advice given to nervous or rookie public speakers is Don’t Try to Be Funny. It is time for the Huntsman campaign to take note. This is an approach that simply isn’t working.
— Charles C. W. Cooke is an editorial associate for National Review.
I wholeheartedly agree. Even their picture obnoxious. The Hunstman campaign has been a great disappointment, and his daughters are only one small part. It's unfortunate.
I watched their ads and a couple of interviews and they seemd educated, articulate, intelligent, light hearted and fun. They are not a liability unlike certain ex V.P. candidate's kids. In a perfect world Huntsman will be a couple yards ahead of most of the caricatures in the field but hey this is not the perfect world, and the author of this article is named "Charles C.W. Cooke". Go figure!!!
Yeah, what's with that C.W. anyway. Sounds just a tad pretentious, eh? Reminds me of the scene in Young Lincoln where Henry Fonda as Lincoln asks John Palmer Cass whether anybody called him Jack. Cordially, Bill
Hey thanks for the links. I had not seen, or heard the young ladies before. I thought both the clips were cute. They made me smile. Hardly anything to carp about.
I agree with you, Ellen. I have seen them interviewed on Fox. Any father would be proud to have them as his daughters on what little I have seen of them. I do not know much about Huntsman, but although he does seem to have a lot of conservative positions and does not seem to be a flip flopper, he (as I understand it) supports the global warming ruse and that is enough for me to rule him out of contention.
This guy is a spoiled brat and I'm reasonably certain his girls take after him. They've known nothing but extreme and unearned wealth their entire lives, daughters and father.
Conservative positions? He's a liberal democrat that calls himself a Republican, a requirement of the past few decades to get elected to the governorship of Utah. His judgment is very poor, too. When he came to office, he fired the entire Utah economic development staff, throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. He later realized he'd made a mistake and hired a few back to restore lost programs and federal funding, as well as institutional memory, which had been completely wiped out. The wholesale firing came without any evaluation or assessment of existing employees' capabilities. More than 35 people were simply called into a conference room and told they no longer had jobs. There's a real people person, a true analytical mind, a "job creator" and, generally, wise man. Is that the kind of recklessness this country needs? He did other knee-jerk and irresponsible things while in office, but this example sufficiently portrays his professional and personal lack of character and judgment.
He touts his China experience loudly. By the same yardstick, every Mormon missionary that spent time in a Chinese speaking area would equally qualify, but, then, they don't have billions of "Daddy's" dollars and the influence they buy to be appointed ambassador or run national political campaigns.
BTW he was selected nominee as the Utah GOP governor candidate in 2004, despite the fact that the Republican incumbent, an elderly and very capable woman, had an 87% approval rating. There's a sickening story about that you may be interested to study.
One more little tidbit. He dropped out of school to pursue his forlorn dream of being a rock star. Failed miserably. Now, being elected President would help make up for that, wouldn't it? He'd be the Star of stars.
I wish NRO would get off his bandwagon and stop mentioning the buffoon's name.
It's disgusting how that smug turd keeps getting mentioned despite the fact that he has almost always done the absolute worst in the polls (not that polls are of real people or anything).
My gut reaction to Huntsman has always been ***EXTREME*** nausea, now I know why. I had that same reaction to John Kerry.
Huntsman can't hide what he is--if you're an RSS hoal all your life, it's pretty hard to whitewash it for a presidential election (unless you have the entire MSM repainting your image like Obama).
This guy is a spoiled brat and I'm reasonably certain his girls take after him. They've known nothing but extreme and unearned wealth their entire lives, daughters and father.
Conservative positions? He's a liberal democrat that calls himself a Republican, a requirement of the past few decades to get elected to the governorship of Utah. His judgment is very poor, too. When he came to office, he fired the entire Utah economic development staff, throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. He later realized he'd made a mistake and hired a few back to restore lost programs and federal funding, as well as institutional memory, which had been completely wiped out. The wholesale firing came without any evaluation or assessment of existing employees' capabilities. More than 35 people were simply called into a conference room and told they no longer had jobs. There's a real people person, a true analytical mind, a "job creator" and, generally, wise man. Is that the kind of recklessness this country needs? He did other knee-jerk and irresponsible things while in office, but this example sufficiently portrays his professional and personal lack of character and judgment.
He touts his China experience loudly. By the same yardstick, every Mormon missionary that spent time in a Chinese speaking area would equally qualify, but, then, they don't have billions of "Daddy's" dollars and the influence they buy to be appointed ambassador or run national political campaigns.
BTW he was selected nominee as the Utah GOP governor candidate in 2004, despite the fact that the Republican incumbent, a very capable and experienced woman, had an 87% approval rating. There's a sickening story about that you may be interested to study.
One more little tidbit. He dropped out of school to pursue his forlorn dream of being a rock star. Failed miserably. Now, being elected President would help make up for that, wouldn't it? He'd be the Star of stars.
I wish NRO would get off his bandwagon and stop mentioning the buffoon's name.
These girls are not stealing anyone's thunder. I am as much a political junkie as anyone, and I think this is the first I've heard about their sketches and routines. I still have not watched.
I have not watched -- nor will I -- because I could not care less about what the Huntsman girls say or do. There is no testimonial from a family member regarding a candidate that would ever have any influence on my vote.
Jon Huntsman's daughters are what I would term "interested witnesses". They're rightly about as colored in their opinion of their father as one could possibly be.
Does anyone ever expect to hear an announcement from a candidate's child(ren) urging everyone to vote for someone else? Of course not.
Secondly, to steal thunder, there has to be thunder to steal. There is not, both because of Huntsman's poorly-run campaign, and also because the media made a conscious decision to ignore him from the outset this past Spring.
That snub from the media is probably partly to blame for video clips of his daughters shilling for him. Either way, I don't think anyone should overstate the number of people who care what these three girls have to say about their dad.
The day a candidate's offspring proudly declares that the parent is a poor choice of a candidate, I'll take notice.
Madisonian, while you are correct that the opinions of few children of politicians get noticed, you have to take in to account the reason that some are more influential or well-known than others. McCain's daughter wasn't a glimmer on the scene until she took positions that were opposed to her father. Ron Reagan got lots of press and is now a regular on MSNBC when it was discovered how different his worldview was to his father. Who heard of the Bush girls until they had some teenage run-ins with authority? See the trend? It isn't a big deal to notice the youngsters, just not the normal topic for NR.
Remember, NR is a medium largely by and for old white hetero males.
Notice the regularity with which photos of ugly old men are juxtaposed with images of women in strapless gowns (the bleached-blonde actress wearing a strapless wedding dress, Kim Kardashian (SP?), this trio).
The old dudes who run NR constantly reveal themselves to be as lecherous as the editorial board of National Geographic. They do more to drive voters away from conservative *political* causes than liberals could possibly hope for.
Why Buddy R. and Gary J. weren't invited to Trump's little chit-chat, we'll never know. But I did hear that Tim Pawlenty was going to be the bartender.
Their father's 15 minutes are almost up. THey had to try to cash in now. But I hope they, and their father, are comfortable in obscurity. T-minus 27 days and counting.......
I agree completely, I've been sort of casually keeping an eye out for someone to bring this up actually. The earlier commenter mentioned that he/she is a "political junkie" and has yet to hear about the girls--well I'm not at all a political junkie and I've seen way too much of them already.
The impression that I have is that if it's not, as you say, a contrivance of the campaign, it's fully endorsed by it (and thus, for all intents and purposes, a part of it--them being his FAMILY and all). If they didn't endorse it, they would've stopped it. There are many ways to do that gently, without having to flat out say: "You're just not funny." I'd bet money, however, that they're under the impression that it can help. "Let 'em do it, they're beautiful, hip, funny, this could be great."
Too many words over this? Maybe. But I'd like him to get the nomination, gosh darnit. (Unlikely as it seems at the moment.) And while this wouldn't effect my decision (I like him a good deal) I could see many an unsure voter being influenced by it, possibly a lot.
Follow
