Please can I be president? Pretty please?
Technically, according to the press, Jon Huntsman simply stood in front of reporters and told them that he will be announcing on June 21 that he's entering the GOP race:
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican who served as President Barack Obama's ambassador to China until this spring, is running for president in hopes of defeating Obama.
"I intend to announce my candidacy for the presidency of the United States of America a week from today," Huntsman said Tuesday during a discussion about China policy in New York with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Indeed, Huntsman crossed a few stages off of Hunter's Many, Many Stages Of Announcing You're Running For President. The AP reports:
...his entrance into the race has been all but certain for weeks.
Since returning from China over a month ago, Huntsman has focused on laying the groundwork for a full-fledged candidacy. Last weekend, he made his third trip to New Hampshire, and he has been building a national campaign to be based in Orlando, Fla.
Huntsman's campaign is to begin in earnest next week at the northern New Jersey park where President Ronald Reagan began his 1980 White House run, the officials said, noting Huntsman worked as a staff assistant in the Reagan White House. From there, Huntsman plans to travel to New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state, and Florida, a perennial battleground and host of the 2012 GOP nominating convention. He also plans stops in his home state of Utah and in the early caucus state of Nevada.
So, let's recap. Huntsman:
1. Writes on Facebook yesterday that he's "getting in."
2. Tells reporters he going to "announce" that he's getting in the race.
3. Announces the date and location of that "announcement," and
4. Has his campaign leak his initial campaign schedule as a presidential candidate.
But all that doesn't constitute an "announcement" in today's political climate for candidates. It's a strange landscape where they can be invited to televised debates before they even "announce" they're running (see, i.e., Michele Bachmann) and where they can lay out entire campaign schedules but still claim that they have not "announced" their candidacy.
In any event, after yesterday's Republican primary debate, one of the biggest narratives to emerge was about Tim Pawlenty's reluctance to attack Mitt Romney. Is Huntsman better positioned to be the anti-Romney candidate Republican voters are looking for? And what will his strategy be to shake off the attacks based on his work in the Obama administration?
We'll see what the answers to those questions will be in the next few months. After Huntsman officially "announces" for the hundredth time, of course.