Jon Huntsman on paper (& in person)

Just before the polls in New Hampshire closed on Tuesday, I caught my guy on FoxNews.  It was one of the few times I had seen the former Utah Governor on TV.  It struck me that I had come to my decision to back Jon Huntsman almost exclusively based on what I had read in the Wall Street Journal and on the candidate’s web-site.

I was backing the candidate with the boldest and most pragmatic conservative approach to the fiscal mess created by increased spending and an excessive reliance on the federal government to address our nation’s woes, social as well as economic.

And I’ve wondered, as I asked yesterday morning, if the liberals who voted for Huntsman on Tuesday knew his “economic package [had] earned the Wall Street Journal‘s praise” for its bold conservative approach to our nation’s fiscal crisis?  Perhaps they’ve rallied ’round him not for the ideas he has espoused but for the criticism he has leveled.  They like Republicans critical of the GOP.

All that said, we need a bold approach to our nation’s fiscal situation and regulatory leviathan.  Jon Huntsman has offered such an approach.  (As has House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.)  If he makes that the focus of his campaign, he may gain some ground in the polls.  And even he doesn’t win, he may have some impact on the eventual nominee — pushing him to offer an equally bold platform.

Oh, and one more thing.  It would be nice to hear a candidate putting forward a conservative fiscal platform while supporting same-sex civil unions.  These policies aren’t mutually exclusive.  And Rudy Giuliani has, alas, faded from the political scene.