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Politics

The New Jon Huntsman Ad By His Daughters Reminds Us Only That Even Svetlana Stalin Endorsed Her Father on Occasion

Nick Gillespie | 12.2.2011 10:17 AM

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Failing (flailing?) Republican presidential candidate Gov. Jon Huntsman (R-Utah) is not only saddled with a general lack of charisma and interesting policies but with his daughters. Much to the apparent dismay of staffers on the former governor's of-interest-only-to-Beltway-liberals-and-even-then-not-many run for the White House, the girls have "gone rogue" in appropriating Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack":

The campaign itself has been unnerved at times by the Huntsman daughters' jokes — for example, when they dinged Romney on Twitter for only visiting China once, adding, "Panda Express doesn't count."

The latest video apparently took at least some campaign staff by surprise. "They've kind of gone rogue," said one source with knowledge of the campaign.

"The video was produced without authorization," said a longtime Republican close to the campaign. "The girls were asked by a number of campaign officials to not release the video. The campaign was not informed of the release of the video. The video does not have a disclaimer and is not a campaign product."

"We are shamelessly promoting our dad like no other candidate's family ever has," said one of the daughters (who have names, but really, should we bother learning them before they show up on Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, or Celebrity Rehab?).

As Squeaky Fromme could tell you, that sort of familial loyalty is as touching as it is overstated. With the possible exception of Newt Gingrich, we can safely assume that all the real and imagined GOP candidates have secured the votes of a clear majority of once-and-future blood relations.

Joe Stalin's tortured (literally and figuratively) daughter Svetlana died recently and, despite defecting from the Soviet Union to America (and then back again), even she at times had kind words to say about the man who called her "little sparrow" when taking a breaking from the murder of innocents (she once memorably noted that "You can't regret your fate, although I do regret my mother didn't marry a carpenter.")

All of which is a way of saying: I miss Roger Clinton (two shows nightly at the Pyongyang Marriott!) and the Bush girls 1.0.

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Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

PoliticsJon Huntsman
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  1. Stockholm Syndrome   14 years ago

    Libertarians have stockholm syndrome for agricultural city-Statism.

    1. Destrudo   14 years ago

      Yawn

    2. Off White Indian   14 years ago

      You are nothing but a cheap knock off imitation of my brother White Indian. We all know it is [AGRICULTURAL+CITY]-[STATISM].

      Now of you excuse me I have to GAMBOL........

      1. WTF   14 years ago

        Gambol
        Balm Go
        Lamb Go
        Lag Mob
        Gal Mob
        Mag Lob
        Lam Bog
        Lam Gob
        Am Glob
        Ma Glob

  2. Abdul   14 years ago

    I kind of like the brunette the most.

    1. R C Dean   14 years ago

      Me, too.

    2. JW   14 years ago

      Aren't they all brunettes?

    3. John   14 years ago

      I always thought the blond would turn into a fat girl. But she really hasn't. This is one time I would go for a blond over a brunette.

      1. mr simple   14 years ago

        One of the blondes wa a bit chubby in an interview I saw them in, NTTAWWT. The skinny blonde kept getting cut off by the brunette. When she finally got a couple sentences out, I understood why. Definitely a blonde.

        1. John   14 years ago

          I was mistakenly talking about the Bush twins. The blond is still pretty hot these days.

    4. )(   14 years ago

      Veronica over Betty, always.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder   14 years ago

        Yes

    5. JD   14 years ago

      2, 1, 3.

  3. Montani Semper Liberi   14 years ago

    Republicans have the hottest daughters.

    1. Zeb   14 years ago

      I don't know. Gore's daughters were pretty good looking. I would have picked them over the Bushes in magical fuck-whoever-you-want-without-consequences land.

    2. sunny black   14 years ago

      You know you dream of an Amy Carter-Chelsea Clinton-Alexandra Pelosi orgy of self-entitlement.

      1. Skip   14 years ago

        Alexandra Pelosi is kind of nice in a hipster girl sort of way. Chelsea is just gross and I am too young to remember Amy Carter.

    3. yummy   14 years ago

      Ayla Brown's a freak, in a good way.

  4. Suki   14 years ago

    What a RACIST video!

    1. Nigel Tufnel   14 years ago

      What's wrong with being racy?

      1. Suki   14 years ago

        At least the still picture is not racist.

        1. fish   14 years ago

          It's racist of you to notice that!

      2. Michael St. Hubbins   13 years ago

        SEXy, not "racy," Nigel. It's sexy that there's nothing wrong with being, you twit.

  5. John Thacker   14 years ago

    With the possible exception of Newt Gingrich, we can safely assume that all the real and imagined GOP candidates have secured the votes of a clear majority of once-and-future blood relations.

    Pretty sure I remember a brief blurb in the Onion's "Our Dumb Century" with "Dukakis wins a majority of Dukakis family."

  6. Mike M.   14 years ago

    Dear Huntsman daughters: whatever you do, don't quit your day jobs. Assuming of course that you actually have any.

    1. wareagle   14 years ago

      being Huntsman daughters IS their day job. It's kinda like being a Hilton but without the sex tape. At least so far.

  7. Chris   14 years ago

    Nice Streetlight Manifesto reference.

  8. Dustin Whitmore   14 years ago

    I dunno dude they are looking pretty good to me dude. Wow.

    http://www.VPN-Shield.tk

    1. _   14 years ago

      I think we've found O3's brother here.

  9. PersonalJustice   14 years ago

    Based on Huntsman's poll numbers, this is probably one of those no such thing as bad publicity things.

    1. yummy   14 years ago

      The latest video apparently took at least some campaign staff by surprise. "They've kind of gone rogue," said one source with knowledge of the campaign.

      "The video was produced without authorization," said a longtime Republican close to the campaign. "The girls were asked by a number of campaign officials to not release the video. The campaign was not informed of the release of the video. The video does not have a disclaimer and is not a campaign product."

      They doth protest too much.

      This is like Chik-Fil-A complaining that one of their giant fiberglass cows got stolen.

  10. Spanky   14 years ago

    What happens when wealth, looks, and lack of talent collide...

    1. Spanky   14 years ago

      Incidentally, did you notice that the Huntsman daughters singled out Cain for the most abuse? Herman, I think they secretly want you...

  11. sunny black   14 years ago

    I liked how Bill Huntsman went on Hannity a few weeks ago, and after saying 'Hi, how are you?' the camera panned to reveal his spawn. And they giggled and posed for the next 5 minutes.

    Review: Tim Huntsman running for President, goes on Hannity (one would assume to vomit policy platitudes), and then pimps out his daughters so they can ham it up and make poo on Hannity's studio. He knows what's up.

    1. Joshua   14 years ago

      so... very biblical. Kind of like Lot.

  12. Skip   14 years ago

    If Huntsman hadn't fallen over himself complimenting Obama, I think he would be doing much better.

    1. FIFY   14 years ago

      If Huntsman hadn't fallen over himself complimenting Obama wasn't Huntsman, I think he would be doing much better.

      also

      If Bachmann wasn't Bachmann, I think she would be doing much better.

      If Cain wasn't Cain, I think he would be doing much better.

      etc

  13. Eduard van Haalen   14 years ago

    If they can perform "Baby got back," then while the Huntsman campaign is still on, someone should perform Cesar Franck's "The Accursed Huntsman." Why hasn't this meme gotten out?

    The media can work it into one of those religious-right-doesn't-like-mormons headlines: "The Accursed Huntsman? Fundamentslists question Huntsman and Romney's religion," etc.

  14. The Other Siblings   14 years ago

    Hey, let's not forget Billy Carter, Donald Nixon, or Sam Houston Johnson while we're talking about embarrassing family relations here...

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