Jon Huntsman's "country first " campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination ends.
After announcing his withdrawal, Huntsman endorsed Mitt Romney.
Just ten weeks ago, on Meet the Press, Huntsman said Romney was unelectable against Obama.
Huntsman's rationale for now backing Romney, who he has criticized for weeks on the campaign trail as lacking a "core," is that he doesn't want to block the person best prepared in the field to beat Obama.
As soon as word was out that Huntsman was quitting and would endorse Romney, team Huntsman sent out the scrubbers to remove his criticism of Romney from the web including:
- Huntsman's "Backflip," video that highlighted Romney’s flip-flopping on abortion, gun rights and Ohio’s proposal to curb bargaining rights for unions.
- Huntsman's video calling Romney of being a “perfectly lubricated weather vane” because of Romney's changes on issues.
- Huntsman's Web site produced to mock Romney's offer to bet Rick Perry $10,000.
What happened to the Jon Huntsman that gave the nominating speech for Governor Sarah Palin at the 2008 Republican nominating convention?
Obama's strategy of co-opting Huntsman by appointing him to be ambassador to China worked. More 50% of Huntsman's New Hampshire voters said they were satisfied with Obama as president.
Huntsman bet his whole campaign on New Hampshire, where he came in a disappointing third.
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