Jon Huntsman Drops Out; Ain't A Dang Thing Changed

In case you haven’t heard, former governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman Jr. has officially dropped out of the Republican primary.  That’s not surprising, really, considering that he spent most of the past year in the single digits.  What is surprising is that he didn’t bow out on the night of the New Hampshire primary; the guy practically lived there, and he still came in behind Ron Paul.

The other thing that is surprising (and particularly #HeadDesk worthy) is that Huntsman thinks his dropping out will consolidate the vote.  That couldn’t be any further from the truth.

Huntsman dropping out does very little, if anything, to affect the dynamics of this race.  Right now you have three factions: Romney, Paul, and then this gaggle involving Perry, Gingrich, and Santorum.  And the truth is that as long as Paul is in the race, there will probably never be anyone with enough momentum to overcome Romney.  Even if you have Santorum and Perry drop out, there is a very real chance that Paul staying in can help Romney get the plurality every time.

So it’s cute that Huntsman wants his endorsement to carry weight, just like it’s cute that McCain wanted his to do so, but Jon dropping out did nothing to change this cluster-truck that we’re dealing with.  The only thing it did was to make the Huntsman girls seem a little less relevant.  But with today’s news culture, they can probably go to CNN and be three times more compelling as pundits than Meghan McCain has ever been. (click here and here to see some of what the Huntsman girls have become famous for)