Huntsman says praise from Moore, Carter, Clinton sank his GOP presidential ambitions

Why did Jon Huntsman’s White House bid fail to gain traction?

To hear the former Utah governor and ambassador to China tell it, his campaign was given a “death hug” by prominent figures from across the aisle.

In an interview Monday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Huntsman named a trio of Democrats — filmmaker Michael Moore and former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton — whose praise he argued contributed to his campaign’s demise.

Via The Hill’s Christian Heinze:

A guy named Michael Moore who went on television and said ‘That Huntsman guy. He’s a Republican I think I could support’ to be followed up by Jimmy Carter who said ‘This Huntsman guy: I think he’s somebody I could support’ to be followed up by Bill Clinton, who went on television and said ‘He seems pretty un-hidebound. He’s a Republican I think I could’ — we were so toast in Iowa by then.

Ahead of the New Hampshire primary — on which Huntsman had hinged his presidential bid — the former Utah governor also pointed to Romney’s years as Massachusetts governor as a source of his strength in the Granite State, noting that Romney was a “homeboy” in the state.