Huntsman: ‘Tough time’ voting for Paul over Obama

Jon Huntsman said he would have a “very, very tough time” voting for Ron Paul if he won the GOP nomination and faced off against Barack Obama in the 2012 general election.

In an interview taped Saturday night and aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the former Utah governor said it was “just not a reality” that the Tea Party favorite had a shot at winning the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

While he credited Paul for being “consistent,” he added that Paul’s strict Constitutionalist ideology “is not where the American people are, at all.”

{mosads}However, he stopped short of saying he would vote for Obama over Paul, indicating he would sit out a general election with that matchup.

“I don’t think that’ll even be a possibility,” he said, although he said earlier in the interview when asked about Mitt Romney that he would “do everything you can” for the eventual GOP pick.

He generally offered up kind words for the remaining GOP field, but also included some pointed criticism of Newt Gingrich and Romney.

He said voters have a hard time trusting Romney because “they’re going to have a hard time getting a bead on where his core is.”

And the former House speaker has “some baggage” from his time in Congress that would prove “a liability,” Huntsman said.

 Struggling to climb the GOP leaderboard, Huntsman said his campaign’s extensive focus on the state will pay off when voters hit the polls on Tuesday.

“I can feel the energy,” he said. “There’s something on the ground that tells me all the work we’ve done… is going to pay off in the end.”

He also vowed that he would “do well” in New Hampshire, and acknowledged that his lagging campaign had to surprise people to gain traction.

“We have to show big. You’ve got to move a market,” he said.