ABC's Christiane Amanpour just can't comprehend why Jon Huntsman, with his 'eminently sensible' anti-conservative positions, could be losing to Newt Gingrich who is full of 'bombast' and 'does say some pretty alarming things, some might say outrageous things.' More upsetting, Hunstman is supposedly 'reversing' himself on those 'eminently sensible positions.'
Interviewing Huntsman, who appeared from the Granite State, Amanpour noted on Sunday's This Week that 'you are at the bottom of the pack despite the fact that some independents, for instance, in New Hampshire call you the sanest one running,' yet ' what you're offering does not seem to be resonating. It appears that the Newt Gingrich, sort of bombast and brash in your face against Obama, is what's resonating.'
A few minutes later, the flustered Amanpour scolded the former Governor of Utah for supposedly moving to the right:
It appears that you are reversing some of your own eminently sensible positions. For instance, on climate change you in August, tweeted that, 'to be clear, I believe in evolution and I trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.' You've been tweeting about the sort of rightward swing, you've been jabbing at the base. And yet, in the last week, you sort of rolled that bit back on climate change. You sort of said that there isn't enough science.
An exasperated Amanpour wondered: 'What are you doing?'
(She didn't offer any specifics about his 'sort of' apostasies.)
Unexplored by Amanpour: How Huntsman is not resonating with conservatives because he is resonating with the media elite who embrace him for running as the anti-conservative trying to rise above his – to borrow from Amanpour's lexicon - 'sort of' conservative record.
Two of Amanpour's 'questions' to Jon Huntsman on the Sunday, December 11 This Week on ABC:
> People are trying to figure out how you're going to really break out - because you are at the bottom of the pack - despite the fact that some independents, for instance, in New Hampshire call you the sanest one running. Our George Will has said that you deserve a 'searching second look' from conservatives. Ross Douthat of the New York Times calls you the most electable conservative remaining in the race. And yet, as I say, what you're offering does not seem to be resonating. It appears that the Newt Gingrich [holds up her fists], sort of bombast and brash in your face against Obama, is what's resonating.
> All right, let me ask you about where this campaign is going. I read to you a few comments from people before, including one who called you the sanest one still running. But it appears that you are reversing some of your own eminently sensible positions. For instance, on climate change you in August, tweeted that, 'to be clear, I believe in evolution and I trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.' You've been tweeting about the sort of rightward swing, you've been jabbing at the base. And yet, in the last week, you sort of rolled that bit back on climate change. You sort of said that there isn't enough science. I mean, what are you doing?