John Thune Won't Run For President In 2012

[Danny]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/22/john-thune-2012-not-running-for-president_n_826582.html

[Soul Crusher]

Angling for vp.

[240 is Back]

Angling for vp.

Yep yep.  He's a very safe pick for a moderate like Romney.

And if Obama wins, he'll have plenty of name recognition from being the loser on the VP slot, and he'll br prime for 2016 ala Palin now.

[Fury]

Huntsman/Thune.

[George Whorewell]

Mubarak/ Trump

[Soul Crusher]

I would vote for madoff/vandersloot if forced to in 2012 over what we have now.

[240 is Back]

I think romney would pick thune.  but not huntman.  huntsman would choose patraeus, as hunts has the economic credibility and needs someone in the middle with military wisdom.

or he could choese West!  or a rubio, predictable.

[Dos Equis]

He wasn't getting much traction and doesn't have the name recognition or funding yet.  I would imagine that's why he isn't running, particularly when the field is wide open. 

[Benny B]

Angling for vp.

 

[Dos Equis]

I think polls like this help explain Thune's decision. 

Poll: Same three names, different day
By: CNN's Rebecca Stewart

(CNN) – Three familiar Republicans are neck-and-neck in a hypothetical race for the 2012 GOP nomination, according to a new Gallup poll, and they're the same three that have taken the top spots in recent surveys.

Though Mike Huckabee is ahead of the pack with 18 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saying they'd be most likely to support the former Arkansas governor in a Republican primary, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are hot on his heels and tied, each with 16 percent of the vote.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman rank in the poll as relative newcomers. Both are mulling over a formal run to the White House and picking up notoriety in the meantime. Bachmann, who delivered the Tea Party response to this year's State of the Union address, received four percent support in the poll and Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, received three percent support. He recently hand-delivered a resignation of his post as ambassador in a move that stirred up the presidential candidate rumor mill.

Support ratings at this stage in the presidential race are highly reliant on name recognition. And though Donald Trump may have a household name, he registered less than one percent support in the Gallup poll. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, rank in the middle, while Mississippi Gov.Haley Barbour, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum are tied at three percent support.

And even though South Dakota Sen. John Thune is firmly against a White House bid for 2012, one percent of the respondents expressed their support for his candidacy.

The Gallup poll surveyed 1,326 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents by telephone from February 18-20. It has a sampling error of plus-or-minus three percentage points.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/23/poll-same-three-names-different-day/#more-147978