Huntsman’s Chance

Take a look at the opening of Jon Huntsman’s speech today to Florida’s regional CPAC conference, text courtesy of the Huntsman campaign:

Nothing long survives without advocates, and that includes those rights, penned by Thomas Jefferson, upon which our nation was founded: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
How quickly those rights could be eroded – if not for this organization, and all of you. So thank you for your work.
I’d like to speak today about life and liberty, without which there can be no pursuit of happiness.
Let me begin by telling you about the life of my daughter, Gracie Mei. She’s 12 years old….I can’t imagine our world without Gracie and her younger sister Asha, who’s adopted from India. Every day we look in their eyes and thank God their mothers chose life, and did not throw it away.
As governor of Utah, I supported and signed landmark legislation to protect life – including parental consent and fetal pain laws – and as president I would do the same. …
The pursuit of happiness is imperiled not just by infringements on life and liberty, but by the inability to find a job… Our most urgent priority must be putting the American people back to work and restoring America’s prosperity.
President Obama believes that we can tax and spend and regulate our way to prosperity. We cannot. We must compete our way to prosperity.
I’ve lived overseas four times, most recently as Ambassador to China.
I know our nation’s biggest competitor, and what it takes to compete in the 21st Century global economy.
I’ve also been governor of a state that under my leadership led the nation in job creation, and whose economy grew at triple the national rate – even faster than Texas under my good friend Rick Perry.
But I would never describe what happened in Utah as a “miracle,” because that is something unexplained. And we know exactly why we led the nation. We passed the largest tax cut in state history; streamlined regulations; honestly balanced the budget; tripled our rainy day fund; created certainty and an environment for growth.
We must do the same for America.
My jobs and economic plan is the only one endorsed by the Wall Street Journal, and described by one conservative economist as “the most pro-growth proposal ever offered” by a presidential candidate. …
We should not be nation-building overseas, when we have nation-building to do here at home. We should not rest until we rebuild our core.
And when our military is overextended, we risk being unable to aid our allies in times of crisis, such as Israel staring down a nuclear Iran. I cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran. If there was ever a reason to use American force, it would be that.