i think he would be the most serious threat to the president in the general election. mark, real quick, do you agree? i do sill think michele bachmann is more likely to win the iowa caucus right now, but even if she does, she s not going to win the nomination, unlikely, and the reality is that somebody like jon huntsman would be a much better general election candidate. bob shrum and mark mckinnon, fascinating, thanks both. kick it hard and carry on, regardless. all right. here s a news flash. it turns out things are not going well. first he lost the entire conservative movement. now his donors are leaving as well. wait until you hear his unbelievable excuse today on the paul ryan comments. president obama delivers a big speech on the middle east, and the right wingers of course are already on the attack. you know what? i m going to attack back. the head of the oversight
serve a country, so i think that s a great message. he comes across as very authentic. in the end, what people and voters are looking for is somebody who s real, consistent and credible, and human. mark, real quick. in the final analysis, even though palin has a huge lead right now, do you think huntsman has a better chance than palin? i think huntsman has a much better chance. i think palin s sell-by date has already come and gone. i think people basically are not going to see her as presidential. i don t think she can if she wins iowa, if she enters iowa and wins it, i think she ll fall flat. she may open that social conservative space, but then i don t think a social conservative will be a nominee. sometimes you can look at people. newt gingrich is another example. you can look at her and say, maybe it was plausible at some point in the past. it s not plausible now. frankly i m hoping that huntsman doesn t take off.
hug to huntsman and romney is a smart strategy, so it suv indicates them in the primaries. he s done that previously with huntsman, just did it with romney. let s watch it first. with a little assist from the former governor of massachusetts, we said that health care should no longer be a privilege in this country. we said in the united states of america, just like here in massachusetts, you should never go broke because you get sick. mark, is that a smart strategy, or does that maybe help them in some way if they make it out of the primaries. i think it s a good strategy on the president s part, but bob s point was good about authenticity. last election, he was a good governor with a strong business background and went around and kissed the rings on the right and turned into a pretzel. jon huntsman is not doing that. he can say when i got called to serve, i didn t get called to serve a party, i got called to
himself to the primary electora electorate. what was clever about what bush did was he said he was a conservative, but a compassionate conservative. it made him sound like a different kind of conservative. that s how he came across to the electric rat. when they use the term mainstream conservative they want to say he s conservative, but that s there to also position him as someone who can win. when they turn the obama stuff against him and say he was obama s ambassador to china, he probably will say, no, i was america s ambassador to china, and then he ll use that credential to critique the obama policy. i wouldn t write him off. i don t know whether mark s right or mark s hope will come true that a republican primary electorate can accept someone like this this year. mark, let s stay with that point. he thinks giving a big old bear
mckinnon, cofounder of the no labels movement, and former adviser to mccain s 2008 presidential bid. welcome both. glad to be here. let me start with you, mark, you have hadn tman sounding somewhat reasonable. does he have a prayer in a republican primary? i hope so. jon huntsman is my kind of candidate. i think there s republicans out there that want a message like that, have been hungry for a message like that. he s a very good guy and he s putting together a very good team. so he s going to run hard. obviously it will be difficult but he s got a good shot.