January 16, 2012 07:14 AM UTC

Huntsman To Exit Presidential Race, Endorse Romney

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• by: Colorado Pols

CNN:

Republican candidate Jon Huntsman will drop out of the presidential race on Monday and endorse front-runner Mitt Romney, a senior official with the former Utah governor’s campaign told CNN…

“Governor Huntsman did not want to stand in the way of the candidate best prepared to beat Barack Obama and turn our economy around. That’s Mitt Romney,” the official said.

Adds Fox News, lucid enough:

In light of his work in the Obama administration, Republicans seemed wary of Huntsman. While he cast his appointment in August 2009 as U.S. ambassador to China as answering the call to serve his country, his critics grumbled that he had in fact been working on behalf of the opposition.

Huntsman was conservative in matters of taxes and the reach of the federal government, but he was out of step with most conservatives in his support of civil unions for gay couples. On matters of science, he poked fun at his skeptical rivals in a pre-debate tweet: “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

In the end, Huntsman didn’t seem to register, crazy or otherwise, with Republicans looking for an alternative to Romney or a winner against Obama…