Is Jon Huntsman the 2012 GOP Dark Horse?

Tip of the hat to Rob Wasinger, the former Brownback chief of staff and 2008 presidential campaign manager who has endorsed Ambassador Jon Huntsman for the 2012 GOP nomination, for alerting me to this article by Deal Hudson on Ambassador Hunstman's prospects for winning:

... The question most asked about Huntsman is how Obama's ambassador to China, ostensibly a "moderate" Republican, could gain the nomination of a party presently being fueled by the energy of Tea Party and social conservative activists.

Huntsman's record suggests the possibility is not so far-fetched as some might think. Social conservatives may not realize that, as governor, he signed three pro-life bills to help limit abortions in the state of Utah. Huntsman also signed the most important school choice voucher program in the nation, a universal program not limited to low-income students in a particular district or poorly performing schools. Huntsman also signed legislation protecting the Second Amendment rights of Americans to own firearms.

As a fiscal conservative, Huntsman's credentials are unquestioned. While governor, Utah won an award from the Pew Center's Government Performance Project as the "Best Managed State in the Union," and in 2007 Huntsman signed the largest tax cut in Utah's history, earning his state the Cato Institute's number-one ranking in tax policy. Last year, Forbes magazine described Utah as the nation's leading state in job growth and the "best state" for business and careers. On top of all this, Utah's economy has recorded five consecutive years of 3.5 percent annual growth.

On Huntsman's effort to reform health care in Utah, he does not share the vulnerability of the other Mormon candidate seeking the GOP nomination, Mitt Romney. While Romney's health care program in Massachusetts is seen by many as a prototype for Obamacare, Huntsman's health care measures in Utah were designed to give individuals and families choices about their coverage and how to pay for it. For example, one piece of legislation gave citizens of Utah the ability to take defined contributions from their employers and buy their own coverage. Utah created a website called NetCare, allowing citizens to shop and compare health insurance programs.

The better-known GOP frontrunners for the nomination each has obstacles to overcome: Pawlenty will have to explain to Catholic voters why he left the Church of his birth; Romney's Achilles heel is health care; Gingrich's personal history will continue to dog him, and so on.

But Huntsman has a chance to define himself on the basis of a solid record in the midst of a field of candidates with multiple handicaps. There is good reason why David Plouffe, the former campaign manager for President Obama, said the prospect of a Huntsman candidacy makes him "a wee bit queasy."

[Read the whole thing]

As I told Rob in an email, I am not quite sold on Ambassador Huntsman yet. I have concerns about his views on "Cap and Tax" and on same-sex unions. In addition, it's fairly easy to govern as a conservative in a state like Utah, and I wonder how much of Governor Huntsman's conservatism was a product of where he was governing as opposed to who he is.

But, that said, he is one of the more intriguing possibilities in the GOP field, and I could very well be won over. Such is not the case, for example, for Mitt Romney. Absolutely nothing Romney does or says could possibly change my mind about his being, at heart, a liberal and a phony. I can't understand why conservatives who should know better, such as Kathryn Lopez and the rest of the gang at National Review (except for Ramesh), are so enamoured with Romney (who has NEVER governed as a conservative and who, prior to 2008, had always run for office as a liberal) a pass, while labeling someone like Huntsman (who has actually governed as a conservative) a "moderate". The comparison of the two is an interesting juxtaposition, not the least reason being the religion angle. At any rate, I call into question the conventional wisdom that Huntsman is a "moderate".

And I definitely hope he decides to run.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Why is Jon Huntsman Considered a "Moderate"?

The Kids Are Already Out of Snow Days - Something Must Be Done to Bring This Winter to an End

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Jonah Goldberg on "Groundhog Day"

Ohio Mom Jailed for Sending Kids to Better School District

This is a travesty of justice:

An Ohio mother's attempt to provide her daughters with a better education has landed her behind bars.

"It's overwhelming. I'm exhausted," she said. "I did this for them, so there it is. I did this for them."

Williams-Bolar decided four years ago to send her daughters to a highly ranked school in neighboring Copley-Fairlawn School District.

But it wasn't her Akron district of residence, so her children were ineligible to attend school there, even though her father lived within the district's boundaries.

The school district accused Williams-Bolar of lying about her address, falsifying records and, when confronted, having her father file false court papers to get around the system.

Williams-Bolar said she did it to keep her children safe and that she lived part-time with her dad.

"When my home got broken into, I felt it was my duty to do something else," Williams-Bolar said.

[More, including video]

My Comments:
Gov. Kasich should pardon this woman. No parent should be jailed as a felon for trying to get a decent education for her kids. And no parent should be made to feel so desperate and trapped as to be compelled to break the law in order to get a decent education for her kids.

This is not justice. Not only is a pardon warranted for this mother, but a more just education system that doesn't trap kids in failing schools is an absolute necessity. One thing the State of Ohio could do in the short term is to institute state-wide open enrollment in every public school across the state.

Teen Suspended for Bringing Rosary to School

Check out the reasoning:

A devout Catholic teenager was suspended for the crime of bringing his rosary beads to school. The school claimed it could be showing gang affiliation or endangering “the safety, health, morals or welfare of himself or others”.

[...]

Yeah, this kid belongs to a gang all right. It’s called “the Catholic Church”, and those thugs are dangerous. They’ll shank you if you don’t watch your back!

In all seriousness, how could rosary beads, of all things, endanger the morals of others? The health and safety part will obviously get the typical school administration double-speak about how they could offend some poor non-Christian and cause violence (just like wearing the American flag on Cinco de Mayo!). But morals?! I really want to know where they got that one from. One would think that being a devout Catholic, and showing it by wearing rosary beads, would speak well to this boy’s morals. But not at this high school!

[More]

(emphasis added)

Algore Offers Words of Encouragement to College Graduates

So uplifting.

New Book: Acting White

Friend of this blog and frequent St. Blog's commenter, Stuart Buck, has written a new book titled Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation.

Definitely check it out.

Notre Shame Fails the "Catholic" Test Yet Again

Preeminent Catholic legal scholar, Prof. Charles Rice, who writes a regular column that appears in the Notre Dame student newspaper, submits a column on the Church's teaching regarding homosexuality, and the editor of the student newspaper rejects it because it isn't in a "point-counterpoint format" that offers "an opposing or differing viewpoint":

That way, each “side,” [so] to speak, would have the opportunity to present relevant facts, evidence and analysis to define its position.

So, at America's flagship "Catholic" university, the Church's timeless Magisterial teachings represent merely one viewpoint that needs to be "balanced" by what? The secularist viewpoint? As The Curt Jester points out:

America Magazine tried that both sides format until their editor supposedly got sacked for it... This is just not an area where Catholics can have differing viewpoints and still be faithful to the Church.

But is anyone REALLY surprised by the fact that the Notre Dame student newspaper is taking such an approach? I mean, when the Church's timeless Magisterial teachings regarding abortion are treated by the University administration as something open for "dialogue", and the advocates of abortion on demand are honored with prominent speaking positions and honorary law degrees all in the name of "the exchange of ideas", it is no wonder that the students under their charge are left with the impression that the teachings of the Catholic Church are up for debate.

Do read The Curt Jester's entire piece on the exchange of letters between the still-wet-behind-the-ears editor-in-chief of a frickin' student newspaper and one of the world's preeminent scholars of the Natural Law and the Catholic legal tradition (to whom the clueless upstart refers as "Mr. Rice", as opposed to "Dr. Rice" or "Prof. Rice").

Also, be sure to read Prof. Rice's column, which The Curt Jester has reprinted in full, to see if you can spot the "certain language" with which the editor "was a bit concerned" and feared did not "len[d] itself to creating a productive discussion".


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
An Open Letter from Prof. Rice to Fr. Jenkins

Prof. Freddoso's Introduction to What Happened to Notre Dame? - Part 2: Why the Catholic Faithful WERE Scandalized

Prof. Freddoso's Introduction to What Happened to Notre Dame? - Part 1: "Why I Was Not Scandalized"

What Happened to Notre Dame?

Notre Dame's Frs. Hesburgh, Jenkins, and Scully urge Democrats not to kill school choice

Prof. Rick Garnett reports at Mirror of Justice:

Dear Senator Durbin and Secretary Duncan,

... We write today because we are all deeply disappointed by the turn of events that has led to the imminent demise of the Washington DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), and we are gravely concerned about the effects that the unprecedented gestures that have jeopardized this program will have on some of the most at-risk children in our nation’s capital.

[...]

Three decades of research tell us that Catholic schools are often the best providers of educational opportunity to poor and minority children. Students who attend Catholic schools are 42 percent more likely to graduate from high school and are two and a half times more likely to graduate from college than their peers in public schools. Recent scholarship on high school graduation rates in Milwaukee confirms that programs like the OSP can, over time, create remarkable opportunities for at-risk children. And after only three years, the research commissioned by the Department of Education is clear and strong with regard to the success of the OSP, as you both well know. This program empowers parents to become more involved in their children’s education. Parents of OSP students argue that their children are doing better in school, and they report that these scholarships have given their families an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty. If this program ends, these parents will be forced to send their children back to a school system that is ranked among the worst in the nation, into schools they fought desperately to leave just a few years ago.

At Notre Dame, we have recently witnessed the painful but logical outcomes of your failure to save the OSP. For the past three years, the University of Notre Dame has worked in close partnership with Holy Redeemer School, a preK-8 Catholic school community located just a few blocks from Senator Durbin’s office on the Hill. In fact, Senator Durbin visited the school and expressed his deeply favorable impression. We too have witnessed the transformative capacity of Holy Redeemer, a place where parents report feeling a sincere sense of ownership in their children’s education for the first time in their lives. Indeed, over the past three years strong leadership, excellent academics, low teacher turnover, and committed parents have all contributed to truly outstanding gains in student achievement. The children at Holy Redeemer were, unlike so many of their peers, on the path to college.

So we were deeply saddened to learn that the impending termination of the OSP has put the school in an untenable situation, leading the pastor to conclude that the school must be closed. Families are presently being notified that their children will have to find a new school next year. The end of the OSP represents more than the demise of a relatively small federal program; it spells the end of more than a half-century of quality Catholic education for some of the most at-risk African American children in the District. That this program is being allowed to end is both unnecessary and unjust...

[Read the whole thing]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
"A Deep Resonance With Catholic Social Teaching"?

Yet Another "Non-Negotiable" Item ...

Obama Continues to Act Like a Typical Left-Liberal Democrat Politician Re: Education