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The Huntsman Campaign-in-Waiting Should Stay Where It Is

A spokesman for the so-called [Huntsman] campaign-in-waiting noted, “You won’t see the same tired tropes and images that are the hallmark every other PAC website.” ~Erin McPike That’s right. Horizon PAC has a new set of tired tropes that are all their own. Here was one that scrolls past on the front page of their […]

A spokesman for the so-called [Huntsman] campaign-in-waiting noted, “You won’t see the same tired tropes and images that are the hallmark every other PAC website.” ~Erin McPike

That’s right. Horizon PAC has a new set of tired tropes that are all their own. Here was one that scrolls past on the front page of their website: “America will flourish. Someday COULD be today.” Even by the standards of vague slogans, this is pretty weak. When I clicked on the “more” button, I found a political call to arms that might have been written by Scott McClellan:

What Happened?

To America? To politics? To our politicians?

What happened to decency? To reason?
What happened to common goals? To calm? To respect?
What happened to actual, lasting solutions to problems?

Presumably Huntsman will be answering these at some point, but based on the questions I’m not hopeful that the answers will be much better. If there is one thing that we don’t need, it’s another round of political hand-holding in which everyone laments the lack of bipartisanship, as if that has been the greatest problem of the past decade or two. It sounds as if Huntsman’s allies are laying the groundwork for a Republican version of Obama’s “post-partisan” routine. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that this will go exactly nowhere with Republican primary voters.

Obviously, for legal reasons Horizon PAC has to pretend that it isn’t directly linked to Huntsman, but this seems to be what we can expect from a Huntsman campaign. It’s far worse than I thought it would be. It’s not just going to involve preachy “centrism” and appeals to reasonableness, but there appears to be a lot of talk about very vague principles and no articulation of any specific positions. It is a PAC, so it is supposed to be engaged in supporting candidates that share its agenda. What is that agenda? The site says:

The political action committee supports free-market values, principled leadership and a commitment to long-term solutions.

As opposed to all the PACs that claim to support state ownership of industry, feckless pandering, and short-sightedness?

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