June 23, 2011--Jon Huntsman: Taste the Dirt

I've been waiting for a serious GOP candidate to emerge. Maybe even one I could seriously think about considering. Someone who, minimally, might give Obama a run for his money.

This does not include Sarah and Newt and Rick Santorum.

Then, Ron Paul, though his foreign policy views and true Libertarianism are attractive, is, frankly, beginning to seem over the hill.

Some came and went--The Donald. Remember him? He had his week.

Then last week it was Michele Bachmann's turn.

Of the "serious" ones? Mitt? No chance.

Pawlenty? As the least compromised he might somehow manage to slip through and get nominated but would have no chance of winning the presidency.

Looming in the background? Chris Christie? Jeb Bush? Both are too smart to run now. 2016 looks better for them. But could either beat Hillary?

So that left me thinking about Jon Huntsman. He announced his candidacy on Tuesday in front of the Statue of Liberty, emulating (as best he could) Ronald Reagan of 30 years ago. All the choice of location did was to expose how pale a copy he is. A copy in his own mind.

Call up the picture of Reagan that day. In rolled-up shirt sleeves, all buff, Hollywood hair blowing in the wind off the harbor. While Huntsman was all suited-up, with extra padding in his jacket shoulders to make him look pumped and a plausable commander in chief.

But then there is that disturbing video running on his Website to introduce him to the public. Necessary since only 3 percent of Americans know who he is. Obama's ambassador to China no less. So he obviously feels the need to finesse all the nice things he said about Obama that got him appointed in the first place.

I've linked that campaign video below. It's titled Different. And that it certainly is. You need to check it out. It's not only different but wierd. Which is not a bad thing in itself. But is it presidential?

The image is of a Jon Huntsman look-alike on a off-road motorcycle ripping through his adopted Utah desert. (Adopted since he's from California.)

The Ronald-Reagan-sounding narrator intones quasi-poetic sentence fragments such as--

The world needs new.

America needs fresh.

New perspective.

As seen from 10,000 miles away.

Never raises his voice.

But seldom takes "no" for an answer.

Not in it for the balloons.

The past didn't work.

We don't need that.

Knows business.

Built things.

Took on the tough.

To never flip.

To never flop.

Not in it for the winning.

Taste the dirt.

No drama.

Progress.

This guy's different.

And with that, this different guy heads into the sun.

If you're trying to deconstruct this Beatnik-style text, here's a little help--

The flip-flop thing is obviously a poke at Romney who is more famous for his flip=flopping than anything else. He makes Al Gore look consistent. He was for his version of Obamacare before he was against it and was for a woman's right to choose before he also was against it. Etc.

The "no drama" reference is for certain a poke at his former boss, No-Drama-Obama.

All the new and fresh stuff, I suspect, is to link him again to the Ronald Reagan of "morning in America."

The video, though, doesn't tell you that unlike Reagan, who was truly self-invented, our Jon Huntsman, Jr. is the son of Jon Huntsman, Sr., a gazillionare who founded Huntsman Corporation, a global chemical company with over 12,000 employees. In 2010, revenues were over $9 billion. So Jon Junior "knows business" directly from his daddy.

And the not being in it for the balloons must mean he doesn't want just to be nominated and buried in falling balloons at the GOP convention; but rather, to quote an American Idol judge, he's in it to win it.

But "taste the dirt"?

I was a Lit-Crit major in college but this one alludes me. Maybe you can help me out.