With a second-place spot in the New Hampshire polls, Jon Huntsman has used the sudden Granite State limelight to chastise Mitt Romney for viewing America in terms of partisanship and ideology.
The first encounter with Romney occurred at the NBC/Facebook debate over the weekend, after Romney had suggested earlier that Huntsman’s service as U.S. ambassador to China under Democratic President Obama disqualified Huntsman from the GOP nominating process.
“I was criticized last night by governor Romney for putting my country first,” Huntsman said in the debate. “He criticized me for — while he was out raising money — serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat, like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy. They’re not asking who — what political affiliation the president is. I want to be very clear with the people here in New Hampshire and this country: I will always put my country first. And I think that’s important to them.”
Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, served as U.S. ambassador to China from 2009 until April of 2011 — service in the Obama administration which has drawn criticism from Republicans and hampered his presidential campaign. At Saturday night’s ABC debate, Romney again hit at Huntsman for his work on behalf of the president.
Huntsman said Romney’s attempt to establish strict partisan dividing lines represents the kind of viewpoint that has hurt America.
“This nation is divided … because of attitudes like that,” Huntsman said. “The American people are tired of the partisan division. They have had enough. There is no trust left among the American people and the institutions of power and among the American people and our elected officials. And I say, we’ve had enough, and we have to change our direction in terms of coming together as Americans first and foremost and finding solutions to our problems.”
Huntsman rebuked Romney a third time earlier today when the former Massachusetts governor, after promoting his private sector experience downsizing companies, said that one of his strengths is his willingness to fire people. In a bizarre attempt at associating two topics, he said that firing people is why he no longer supports individual mandates for health care.
“It also means that if you don’t like what they do, you can fire them,” Romney said. “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.”
He added: “You know, if someone doesn’t give me the good service I need, I want to say, ‘You know, I’m going to get someone else to provide that service to me.’”
The comment was immediately seized on by Huntsman as he spoke to supporters in Concord.
“It’s become abundantly clear over the last couple of days what differentiates governor Romney and me,” he said. “I will always put my country first. It seems that governor Romney believes in putting politics first. governor Romney enjoys firing people; I enjoy creating jobs.
“It’s become abundantly clear over the last couple of days what differentiates governor Romney and me,” he said. “I will always put my country first. It seems that governor Romney believes in putting politics first. governor Romney enjoys firing people; I enjoy creating jobs.
“It may be that he’s slightly out of touch with the economic reality playing out in America right now,” he added, “and that’s a dangerous place to be.”
