Huntsman tells New Hampshire crowd he’s the real deal

TILTON, N.H.— Jon Huntsman is aware that currently he's no frontrunner. But the former Utah governor said Monday he's confident support will catch up with him in New Hampshire once voters understand he's for real.

"I'm not going to pander. I'm not going to sign pledges. I'm the only one on that debate stage … who isn't going to sign pledges," Huntsman told a town hall crowd gathered Monday at the historic Merrimack Valley Railroad Company in Northfield, N.H.

Huntsman rolled up his shirtsleeves in the old wooden rail station as traffic noise poured in from the street through the open walls.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I want your support. . . and you know what, I'm not going to get everyone's support." It's an unorthodox pitch in a GOP presidential field largely preoccupied with crafting appeals to unite the party's conservative base behind them. But Huntsman is gambling that his more moderate message will resonate with the notoriously independent-minded New Hampshire electorate--and no doubt recalls that a strong showing in New Hampshire was also crucial to the turnaround of John McCain's flailing campaign in 2008.

Huntsman is also trying to build out an image as the most authentic candidate in the 2012 race, playing up that message in a New Hampshire political market that stresses traditional retail politics, such as front-door canvassing and town-hall gatherings, over big-money ad appeals and high-profile endorsements. He stressed at his Monday town hall that it's precisely the face-to-face tenor of New Hampshire's political culture that will help him break away from a crowded pack of lower-tier GOP candidates.

In his Monday talk, Huntsman also tried to get out in front of one of his biggest liabilities by speaking about his service as U.S. Ambassador to China under President Obama.

"I was raised to believe: put your country before party. . . . The president asked me to serve," Huntsman said, lamenting in nearly the same breath the bitter partisan mood in American politics today.

Huntsman touted his foreign policy experience to the crowd, which included a group of 60 students from St. Michael's University in Vermont. But he'd delivered a much more detailed and hard-hitting account of his foreign-policy positions earlier in the day, when he spoke to a more mature audience at Southern New Hampshire University.

The earlier event was focused on foreign-policy questions, and Huntsman sought to make the most of the forum. He advocated breaking off present nation-building efforts in the Middle East in favor of counter-terrorism activities, and voiced his support for including India as a permanent member of the U.N Security Council. He also proposed giving greater attention to Latin America in framing the nation's policy priorities, and backed more deliberate efforts to integrate diplomatic initiatives with the struggle to address America's domestic economic problems.

The town hall crowd showed approval for several key issues that Huntsman stressed--including bringing troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq, balancing the federal budget and gaining energy independence.

Huntsman also invoked an image he's long used on the trail about America "shining its light" for the rest of the world.

"Half a world away they could see this country's light," Huntsman said earlier in the day, in referencing the efforts of pro-democracy dissidents in China. "When we shine our light abroad . . . we are invincible."

But in the more mundane scrum for advantage in the 2012 GOP field, Huntsman could use a little light of his own.

A Washington Post/Bloomberg poll released Monday showed Huntsman receiving less than .5 percent support nationally among a sample of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. The poll's margin of error was 6 percentage points.

Huntsman noted Monday, as Michele Bachmann did the day prior, that "candidates go up and down" in the presidential race, suggesting that he's employing a campaign strategy that's pitched beyond the day-to-day shifts in national polling numbers.

One reporter told Hunstman Monday that some of his audience members suggested he would be a strong candidate ... to be Secretary of State.

But is he interested? "I'm running for president of the United States," he replied. He also said: "I'd think long and hard about it."

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