Political analysts love to discuss whether Jon Huntsman Jr., former Governor of Utah and current U.S. Ambassador to China, has any chance of succeeding in the much anticipated 2012 Republican Nomination battle that is about to begin.
He's their dream candidate - fiscally conservative, socially moderate, and quite likely to cause Republicans to either bolt, or sit out the 2012 election - and they are very invested in seeing him perform well during the war between candidates.
But could Mr. Huntsman actually succeed?
Ask New Hampshire.
When New Hampshire Republicans went to the polls in early 1964, they were absolutely sick and tired with the leading two candidates - Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller - so they wrote-in one of America's greatest 20th century diplomatic and political figures. They wrote in Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who was currently serving the United States as Ambassador to South Vietnam.
Lodge received almost 40% of the vote and 13,000 more votes than any of the declared candidates. He was surprised by the write-in victory and actually won two more states before publicly announcing he was not running for President. I can't imagine a write-in effort being that successful in American politics today.
It's unlikely that history will repeat itself for Mr. Huntsman, but there is strong precedence for New Hampshire to buck the leading candidates and go with the maverick.
What say you?
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