GOP Presidential nominee Jon Huntsman went after his opponents in the Republican primary on ABC’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour Sunday, continuing a trend of positioning himself as the more moderate candidate in the field: “This is a center right country. I am a center right candidate,” he said.
In an interview with guest host Jake Tapper, Huntsman assailed his Republican counterparts with specific criticisms. For former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, the dig was on flip-flopping: “You know, if we were to talk about his inconsistencies and his — the changes on various issues, we’d be here all afternoon.”
For Tex. Gov. Rick Perry, it was his extreme political positioning, referring to Perry’s comment that should Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke inject more cash into the economy’s money supply, Perry would consider it “almost treasonous,”: “I’m not sure that the average voter out there is going to hear that treasonous remark and say that sounds like a presidential candidate, that sounds like someone who is serious on the issues.”
And when it came to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) contention that she would get gas prices below $2 a gallon, Huntsman simply let go: “I just don’t know what world that comment would come from. You know, we live in the real world.”
In a transcript released yesterday Huntsman railed against the Republican Party becoming anti-science, as Perry’s first week on the campaign trail included comments in which he questioned the validity of both evolution and global warning. Huntsman responded by tweet, saying “To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy,” and went on to say the prospect of the GOP embracing denialism on science is “not a winning formula” for them in 2012.
Huntsman also took shots at President Obama and the state of campaigning in the US: “Right now, we’ve got people on the fringes. President Obama is too far to the left. We’ve got people on the Republican side who are too far to the right and we have zero substance. We have no good ideas that are being circulated or talked about that will allow this country to get back on its feet economically so that we can begin creating jobs.”
And in the end, Huntsman said the current political process doesn’t just make for poor choices in elections, but the policy ramifications can be drastic. Huntsman on the debt ceiling showdown:
I have to say that there was zero leadership on display in terms of my opponents, zero leadership on display in terms of the president, who should have used the bully pulpit well ahead of time. He should have walked away from the teleprompter. The people want you to speak from your heart and soul. Tell us where you want us to go. Tell us what you expect from Congress. Tell us what’s on your mind…That never happened. And it waited until the eleventh hour and then we had some of my Republican opponents who basically, I think, recommended something that would have been catastrophic for this economy.
Watch:
