If Huntsman won the GOP nomination, he would be challenging the reelection of his former boss. White House officials are furious at what they consider an audacious betrayal, but know that any public criticism would be likely to benefit Huntsman if he enters the primaries. ~Mike Allen

Why are they furious? The administration already knew Huntsman was going to leave after two years, so it’s not as if he misled them about how long he was willing to stay. A Huntsman candidacy shouldn’t worry them in the slightest. Consider these results from Utah, where Huntsman was governor and left office with an incredible 84% approval rating:

Utah Republicans overwhelmingly favor Mitt Romney over Jon Huntsman Jr. as a potential Republican presidential candidate, according to a January statewide survey.

In a poll conducted for the Exoro Group and the Center for Public Policy & Administration at the University of Utah, Republicans in the state said they would prefer the former Massachusetts governor over their own former governor by a staggering margin, 65 to 16 percent.

This wouldn’t be a big problem for Huntsman if it were a poll from Massachusetts or even New Hampshire, since everyone expects Romney to dominate in those places. It also wouldn’t be a problem if these results were from any other state except Utah, but Utah is where Huntsman is well-known and still quite popular. If Utah Republicans don’t want him as their presidential nominee, who would? Put another way, if he can’t win against Romney in Utah, where he has almost all the advantages and the fewest liabilities, where could he possibly win?

The good news for Huntsman is that he would be the Utah GOP’s choice for Senate when Hatch comes up for re-nomination, but it appears that this isn’t the campaign he wants to run. So Huntsman is preparing to jump into a contest he can’t win and passing on one that he could. He has just consigned himself to political irrelevance, at least until 2016, which is all that matters to members of the Obama administration, so they should be very pleased.