$$$$$$ is a big requirement to run for office. As are political connections. There are some awesome folks out there but if you can't kick start the campaign with money and connections, you're toast. Huntsman, for example, is smart, knowledgeable, experienced, and a pretty moral guy. He's got zero chance at getting the office.
We, as in folks in both parties, complain a lot about who ends up with the nomination. Unfortunately the way the game is structured the number of people that can successfully run is small, and they all tend to be fairly similar folks. Be they "D" or "R".
I don't have a solution to this problem. I'd have thought the internet would have changed the game, but if anything its making the problem worse.
and the GOP won't support him because he's not part of the GOP political elite.
That's where connections come in. To actually have a chance you have to be an insider OR be fabulously wealth (or have a rich friend
) Huntsman isn't connected enough inside his party, he doesn't start the game with huge amounts of money, and so he's toast. Political connections inside the party opens up avenues to fundraiser, publicity, etc, that an outsider just can't compete with unless he has huge stacks of cash.
This cycle, Romney is probably the biggest outsider (next to Ron Paul) in the race. He's famously despised by just about everyone. Back in 2008 talk around the campfire was that McCain got the nomination specifically to stop Romney. However, Romney is rich, so he has a chance.
My suspicion is that Newt's party connections are likely to trump Romney's 3 cubic acres of cash, just like McCain's connections trumped Romney in 2008.
You should probably check out "Game Change". It makes the case that Obama won not because he was an outsider, but because he was well connected in the DNC. Basically both parties picked an insider in 2008 and rejected a figure unpopular in their own circles.
