Huntsman Makes It Official, Enters 2012 Race

Calls our economy 'totally unacceptable and totally un-American'
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 21, 2011 9:39 AM CDT
Jon Huntsman Makes It Official, Enters 2012 Race
In this June 10, 2011 file photo, possible 2012 presidential hopeful, former Republican Gov. Jon?Huntsman, Jr., of Utah, speaks to a reporter.   (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

And another Republican is officially in: Former US ambassador to China/Utah governor Jon Huntsman today announced that he is running for president. Huntsman joined the race "with a campaign premised on a somewhat radical idea: being nice," write Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake for the Washington Post in advance of the announcement. While Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty both said that Obama had "failed" in their announcements, Huntsman took a softer tack.

"He and I have a difference of opinion on how to help the country we both love," he said of Obama, adding, "The question each of us wants to answer is who will be a better president, not who is a better American." He also called the United States' economy "totally unacceptable and it is totally un-American" and says he has the ideas to turn around the country, reports the AP. More: "We are a resourceful, ingenious, determined, problem-solving people . . . We choose our destiny. This is that moment. We’re not just choosing new leaders. We’re choosing whether we are to become yesterday’s story or tomorrow's." (More Jon Huntsman stories.)

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