Richard Quinn, Huntsman’s senior South Carolina consultant, acknowledges that Huntsman has a steep climb to the nomination.
Still, Quinn, who was Ronald Reagan’s state media director in 1980 and a senior adviser to John McCain during the 2000 and 2008 South Carolina primaries, argues that Huntsman can win in the south, and emerge as the most viable general-election candidate in the field.
Quinn sees McCain as a model of sorts for Huntsman. “[McCain] was not perfect by any means in terms of conservative views on everything,” he says. “But people had tremendous admiration for him and he was a conservative on the issues that mattered most.”
Huntsman is not a decorated military veteran like McCain, but he does have, Quinn says, a maverick streak, valuable foreign-policy experience, and an at-ease persona that Quinn bets will click with southerners as the Utahn becomes more known on the stump.
“I have met the other guys,” Quinn says, reflecting on the competition. “Tim Pawlenty came to my office; he was a nice guy when riding in the car. But even when you had twelve people in the room, he got stiff. That just happens to some people.
“Huntsman is different,” he asserts. “In that Reaganesque way, he is immediately likeable, casual, quick-witted, and self-effacing. He has that twinkle in his eye. He does not give you the feeling that he is on message, spinning you. I have not seen that kind of energy since Reagan was here in 1980.”
Sure, I say, some may swoon, but many will not. They will wonder whether Huntsman is, as his opponents whisper, nothing more than a breezy Utah moderate.
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