5 reasons the GOP should give Jon Huntsman another look

No one really thinks the moderate former Utah governor has a shot — but there's plenty of evidence that he deserves one

What is so wrong with Jon Huntsman?

I mean, other than the fact that more than three and a half months after declaring himself a candidate for president, the ex-governor of Utah and former U.S. ambassador to China is barely a kernel in the Republican primary field? In fact, Huntsman has only recently won 2 percent in three separate polls, thus narrowly escaping elimination from CNN's next debate, on October 18.

Maybe he's just godawful at running for president — a perfectly legitimate deal-breaker, so long as leading America involves convincing Americans. Apart from a widely derided campaign launch at the Statue of Liberty, Huntsman has made no news. He has raised little money from anyone but himself. And while it's hard to assess the quality of his retail campaign from where I sit in Ireland, having recently had to move the whole operation lock, stock, and barrel to New Hampshire can't be a good sign.

One might disagree with how Huntsman connects the dots on any given foreign policy issue — but at least he knows where the dots are.

Then again, the candidates who do have the profile, the money, and the "wow" factor seem to have excited nothing in the GOP electorate so much as a desperate desire to draft someone new. Under the circumstances, it seems worth suggesting to Republican primary voters that there's a guy already in the race who might be worth at least a look. Why?

1. He's not crazy. No offense to militant creationists, deniers of global warning, slavery revisionists, vaccine-conspiracy theorists, and the like. But for Republicans to nominate someone who either fits such descriptions or thrives on darling status among those who do is to hand many independent voters right back to Barack Obama.

2. He's not Romney. As David Frum has pointed out, there are much worse things for a Republican candidate to be right now than Mitt Romney. In fact, in my opinion, the most likely scenario is that the field settles, the extremes start making voters nervous, they end up nominating Romney, and he either beats Obama or comes close. That said, an unsettling number of primary voters have still not warmed to their frontrunner. Theoretically at least, Huntsman can still appeal to those who like Romney the moderate, but don't like Romney the man.