JON HUNTSMAN - FORMER UTAH GOVERNOR DROPS OUT OF THE 2012 GOP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN............

Having staked the viability of his campaign for the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination to face President Obama for re-election in November, on his winning the New Hampshire Primary last Tuesday, finished in third place with 17% of the vote, behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul; and running last in the polls concerning this Saturday's South Carolina Primary, former two term Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, pulled out of the race this morning and endorsed Romney for the nomination. Huntsman, a highly successful Governor, who won re-election in Utah with 79% of the vote; and who served twice as an Ambassador overseas, including as President Obama's first Ambassador to China for two years, found it unable to establish a solid base of support for the nomination, despite his finely tuned conservative political and governing credentials, in large measure due to his role in the Obama Administration as Ambassador to China, until resigning last year to enter the Republican nomination contest to oppose Barrack Obama. I feel Huntsman was the most well rounded of the GOP candidates in this year's field, given his record of experience, yet his moderate conservatism which would serve him very well in the General Election, made it difficult for him to garner support to win the nomination. His withdrawal from the race and supporters likely going largely for Romney, gives Romney a further edge in being the likely Republican standardbearer. That is, unless one of the remaining four bonafided conservatives, Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, or Paul, who is a conservative/libertarian, catches fire in South Carolina on Saturday, to go forward in a one on one shot at vying with Romney, and denying him victory at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida this summer............Fr. Troy