massachusetts leadership and it s a shame that he hasn t embraced it more. let me ask you a question, peter. so, obviously, you gave a lot of cred to the various ways in which you think economically someone like huntsman could bring not only the state, but the country back. would you be supporting huntsman, say, over barack obama? well, that remains to be seen. if huntsman gets the nomination, i think we ll have a very, very strong discussion focused on the jobs of the future and focused on high tech and building economic alliances overseas that work for both countries. that would be a very interesting debate and we ll have to see how it turns out. peter, this is james, how are you doing? there s a couple newspapers here that really like jon huntsman, but they said internally in their discussions they didn t see him as a serious candidate, as a serious alternative to barack obama, his inability to
raise money, his inability to actually make a stand here in new hampshire. what are you seeing in him as a serious candidate that maybe these other editorial boards aren t here in new hampshire? well, i think that his credentials, obviously, are stellar. his presentation is very strong. his confidence is very visible. he would be an efebtive president and a strong candidate against barack obama. obvio obviously, he has not positioned himself as prominently as mitt romney has. but it is still a fluid race and we can see how these things happen. as we said at the end of our editorial if new hampshire republicans and let s say huntsman did not get the nomination, it s sending a signal and it will signal what the eventual nominee will pursue as president. john king, let me ask you a question. with no disrespect to peter. but does it matter? does an endorsement from paper
that is centered to be pretty liberal in a state that is considered to be very liberal going to crush mitt romney in any way, shape or form when it s giving the nod to jon huntsman? no offense to we live in an age that is a lot of distrust of institutions. people don t like the big banks and big government and they don t like speak for yourself. less influence for the news media. that said a lot of people who live particularly in southern new hampshire who formally lived in southern massachusetts who have been globe leaders and they will take a look at it. i don t think newspaper endorsements and when candidates stand next to nikki haley, i don t think it matters the way it used to. peter, pete her a rebuttal he wanted to get to. go ahead. look, our goal is not to dictate to our readers. our goal is to sort of put some ideas out there. if people read that endorsement and look at it and it might jog something in their mind, i think
thou shalt pay for it later in the general election. how big a problem do you think that is going to be? people have been entertained and a lot of times people were wincing and pulling back from the screen. one reason that we endorse huntsman is that he had very few of those moments. he wasn t harsh and he wasn t out of line in any way and a lot of the others have been. peter, this is john king. let me ask you a question. is this more that you just prefer a huntsman over romney? you think huntsman would be a better president or because those at the globe feel snubbed that romney is campaigning more proud of his massachusetts experience. he doesn t talk about as much working with the late senator kennedy or how closely he had to work with democrats in the legislature. you feel like he s running from his record in massachusetts or you just don t like him? well, i think that his aspect of running from his record in massachusetts is something that everybody has noted, not just here
it. mitt romney has been snubbed. boston globe endorsing jon huntsman for the gop nomination. offers the republican party an opportunity to renew itself. back in 2008, paper also endorsed john mccain in that race. joining us live from boston is peter canellis. peter, nice to have you with us and thank you for joining us our panel, as well. first of all, i think when we were talking earlier to the folks from the romney team, they basically did a big giant eye roll and said, so what. they never like our guy anyway. what do you make of that? i think that we actually said some fairly nice things about mitt romney, but he s run a very cautious campaign and very hard to tell from the mitt romney who is out there on the stand and comparing him to the mitt romney who was governor here. it s very hard to tell what he s going to be like as president. where jon huntsman has been bold and he s been clear. when you look at some of the