Jon Huntsman Enters Presidential Race

The former governor of Utah and former ambassador to China for the Obama Administration, Jon Huntsman has officially declared his candidacy to seek the Republican nomination for president. Plus he played keyboard for a progressive rock band called Wizard in the '70s. That's...something.

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  Republican presidential hopeful, Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman swings his leg over a 'Deluxe Softail' Harley during a stop at Manchester Harley Davidson in Manchester, N.H., Saturday, June 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter) JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP)--Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman says he will run a campaign that is based on who would be a better president, not who is a better American. Huntsman on Tuesday formally entered the Republican presidential primary with the Statue of Liberty behind him. He says the United States' economy is "totally unacceptable and it is totally un-American" and says he has the ideas to turn around the country. Huntsman, who until this spring served as President Barack Obama's ambassador to China, says he has the global experience to restore America's prestige. He also says that this generation could be the first in history to pass down a country that isn't as competitive as the last. Huntsman has also publicly called for an end to the war in Afghanistan and has said he would support civil unions for same sex couples. Those more moderate positions, along with his Mormon faith and service in the Obama administration, will make courting Evangelical Christians and hardline conservatives within the Republican primaries difficult.

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  Jon Huntsman, lower right, with Wizard. Huntsman played keyboards with the band in the late '70s. Source.