SALT LAKE CITY - (ABC 4 News) - There is one republican presidential candidate that President Barack Obama's campaign manager fears the most in 2012...and his name is Jon Huntsman Jr.
This week for Governor Huntsman, good things are coming in threes.
Not just the fear from the Obama campaign, but also an important phone call and a weekend spent testing the waters in a key primary state.
While no republican presidential candidate yet makes Obama's team "shake in {their} shoes...," President Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, tells the U.S. News and World Report that Governor Jon Huntsman makes him, a "wee bit queasy...I think he's really out there speaking a lot of truth about the direction of the party."
To which Kirk Jowers of the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics says, "Huntsman has positioned himself in a great place right now because he is the only presidential candidate really running in the middle right now."
Huntsman spent the weekend in Michigan which is a key G.O.P. primary state.
And Jowers - who has advised three republican presidential candidates - says Huntsman has now, "...become a top five candidate for 2012."
And finally, ABC 4 noticed this item on the governor's schedule for Tuesday, May 5th at 11:15 am.
It’s a phone call with Frank Luntz.
Jowers told us this about Dr. Luntz: "Luntz is one of the premier republican pollsters and strategists."
And Jowers says eventually all serious republican presidential candidates will talk to Luntz and, perhaps, employ his services.
In fact, Jowers concludes, "There’s no question that Huntsman is, perhaps, the most talked about republican in the country right now."
