So why doesn’t this mean, “Huntsman 2012”? Let’s start with the most obvious deal breaker. The basic narrative of the “out” party, when a first-term president is running for a second term, is “Your Administration is Wrecking Our Country! We can’t stand Four More Years! We need a total change!” That is what every Republican will have to say about the Obama Administration.

Huntsman is part of the Obama Administration. He is right in the middle of dealings with America’s most important foreign-policy partner/challenge. So in the GOP Primaries, how exactly is he going to out-anti-Obama anyone else in the field, given that he has served Obama (and, yes, the country) so loyally? The retorts from all the other Republicans are almost too easy. “If Ambassssadorrr Huntsman is so concerned about the Obama threat to America, then why,…?”

And if he got through that process, he would run against his current commander-in-chief …. how? And why?