February 1, 2011

Huntsman for President! (In 2016)

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Over at Democracy in America, Jon Fasman is trying to figure out why Jon Huntsman might be considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination this year:

Jon Huntsman was a successful governor, is a successful ambassador, is personable, handsome, accomplished, fluent in Mandarin and has all the makings of a major-party presidential candidate sometime in the future. Apparently, Mr Huntsman seems to have decided that the future is now: he will resign as ambassador to China in May and appears poised to run for president next year. This is a baffling decision….First, Republicans really don’t like Barack Obama. Mr Huntsman has just spent two years as an Obama appointee….Second, why would he waste his candidacy this year? He brings moderation and an actual record of bipartisanship to a party and a primary electorate that seems interested in neither.

….The obvious answer, of course, is that he’s leaping in because he thinks he can win.

Actually, I’d say the obvious answer is exactly the opposite. Huntsman’s chances do indeed seem pretty slim in this election cycle — both in the primaries and in the general election. However, his name recognition is minuscule, and if he wants to run seriously in 2016 he needs to become better known. The best way to do that is to run in 2012. If he runs a decent, serious race, but loses to a more wingnutty candidate who then gets blown out by Obama, he’ll have pretty good credentials for a 2016 run.

Now, I don’t know if actual big-time politicians ever think this way. They seem to have an almost bottomless ability to believe against all evidence that they can win the presidency. (Fred Thompson? Seriously?) But Huntsman seems like a pretty smart, self-aware guy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he knows perfectly well that the odds are stacked against him. Most likely, what he’s really doing is auditioning for 2016.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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