Jon Huntsman can save the party of Obama-hate from itself

It is not unfair to call the GOP the party whose main tenet is a
near-clinical and -obsessive hatred of the president of the United
States that is far outside the tradition and mainstream of American
democracy.

It is a hallmark of a party that has lost its way that its candidates
compete not for whose ideas can shape the nation, but for whose
antipathy and contempt and scorn and ridicule and derision for the
president of the United States is greater than the antipathy, contempt,
scorn, ridicule and derision of the president the United States from the
other candidates.

It is a hallmark of a party that has lost its way that its front-runner is a man of virtually zero conviction, principle, values, ideals and philosophies except what is convenient for him to pretend to believe at a given moment.

It is a hallmark of a party that has lost its way that its front-runners have included a freak-show candidate who ran for president like Sherlock Holmes promising to capture the commander in chief without his birth certificate, and then a man who does know that China has been a nuclear power for decades, then faced a long line of women charging him with abuse, and then humiliated Republicans who defended him with ridiculous comparisons to Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill.

Rick Perry, a man of repeated memory lapses who virtually charges that Christ will send his political opponents to hell. Rick Santorum, who runs for president discussing marriage between three people as a major issue. Newt Gingrich, who outright lied that he was hired as a historian by Freddie Mac. Ron Paul, a decent man who still cannot shake free from certain supporters who are crypto-Nazis seeking race wars.

And of course, the man who went from Willard to Mitt, making even his name a talking point of poll-tested acceptability, who was the original champion of healthcare mandates who often said Ted Kennedy was not liberal enough.

Jon Huntsman is the one Republican who is both a true conservative with long-held convictions and a candidate who can win the general election.

If I were a Republican, I would support Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire.

If I were a true conservative, I would support Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire.

If I were a political independent , I would support Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire.

It is a hallmark of a party that has lost its way that there are few conservatives with the clarity and courage of William F. Buckley to speak out against the hate factions of the GOP, and endorse Huntsman as the most consistent and electable conservative.

If Jon Huntsman cannot be nominated because he does not hate the president enough, it will be the hallmark of a party that is doomed to a defeat it deserves because it knows who it hates, but cannot tell the nation what it stands for.