Crows Nest view of Huntsman's McCain endorsement

Jon of Mangled Cat has not only been spot on with his speculations on the meaning and motivation behind Governor Jon Huntsman's endorsement of Senator Rino McCain's '08 Presidential but has provided the best insight of any blog I've read to date! Check him our at those here and here. There is nothing Mangled about his interpretations and he's been quicker than a Cat with his breaking analysis...

As a Physician practicing in Utah for the last year and like Mangled Cat a recent transplant to the Beehive State, I too have a great vantage point to comment on the Motives behind Gov. Huntsman's surprising endorsement of Senator Cain McRino of Arizona. I say surprising because this is the reaction that all of my LDS patients in my office displayed yesterday. Two actively practicing Mormons indicated surprise indeed and indicated that Huntsman is doing what suits his future political ambitions. One patient who is not actively practicing her LDS faith( known as a Jack Mormon) reactive with incredulity and indicated Huntsman would "burn in hell" for abandoning Mitt Romney, a fellow Mormon.

Furthermore, a Physician associate of mine in my practice, who has been a Bishop for quite sometime in the LDS church was also very surprised on Huntsman's decision to back Senator Cain McRino. His take was that recent polls suggest that American voters would be reluctant to vote for a Mormon candidate for the highest office in the land. Thus, Gov. Huntsman whose father is supporting Mitt Romney is probably setting his sights on a bigger political pond beyond Utah in a Cain McRino Administration.

• From Mangled Cat's terrific analysis dove tails nicely here to help understand the numbers behind Cain McRino strategy
  
• The second thing I found came courtesy of TKS with a great breakdown of a poll conducted to find out candidates that are deemed "acceptable." The headline states:
• 41 percent of Republicans find McCain "not acceptable as a nominee."
• I thought that was interesting and wanted to get a look at the raw data. Romney is mentioned as well with about the same percentage rating him "not acceptable." (The even more interesting number for me was the 27 percent who have no opinion. That is a number that can and must be moved to the acceptable column for Romney and can be done with an LDS education campaign tailored to eliminate the stigma attached to members of the LDS church. We'll save that post for another day.) That number clearly has to be an alarm bell for McCain. He perceives himself such a darling of the media that it would be easy for him to get caught up in the hype and believe himself more popular than he actually is. He has some serious hurdles to face (Gang of 14, Immigration, McCain Feingold, just to name a few) and I think he will encounter some difficulty in the primaries.
  

However, this LDS Bishop friend of mine feels this is short sighted since he doesn't think the GOP base will nominate Senator Cain McRino(see recent gallop poll). Additionally Gov. Huntsman's Mandarin Fluency, acquired during an LDS Mission to Taiwan, his tenure as ambassador to Singapore and his experience as a deputy U.S. trade representative to Asia and Africa have fueled his aspirations beyond Utah Politics.

• From Deseret News
• Craig Goldman, executive director of McCain's PAC, said Huntsman is expected to "boost (McCain's) efforts as far as the PAC goes in all the Western states, including Utah." Huntsman will help choose the Western candidates who receive money from McCain's PAC.
• the pair met only about a year ago, when Huntsman approached McCain for help in dealing with the controversial immigration issue. Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador and trade representative, apparently hit it off with McCain.
• By March, Huntsman was traveling to Iraq to visit the troops, at McCain's invitation, as part of a small delegation of governors and members of Congress. This summer, McCain addressed the Utah GOP state convention at Huntsman's request.
• There, McCain cited Huntsman as a rising star in the Republican party who he expected to do big things on a national, or even international, scale. For Huntsman, that could include serving in a GOP presidential administration.

This Bishop further feels that this Huntsman's move will not be a stumbling block for Governor Mitt Romney's support from Utah's Mormons. He further assures me that he believes Mitt Romney will be strongly opposed to Abortion too.

I also asked these LDS folks were they think Utah's Senator Orin Hatch will side on the Cain McRino/Huntsman pairing. All had the same sentiment, to a person, and said they 'like him very much but he is a politician and he'll align himself with what suits him best politically.'

This is certainly a very informal poll of the reactions from Utahans but like I've said earlier I have a nice feel for the pulse of Mormons in my crows' nest up here in Northern Utah.

Once again it is fascinating to see that the old adage "Politics makes strange bedfellows" is so so true even among the Ladder Day Saints stronghold of Utah.....
thanks for reading and Dominus Vobiscum
Francis X. Yubero, M.D.