New Yorker Profile: Huntsman Campaign Worried Daughters’ Sense Of Humor May Hurt Campaign

Jon Huntsman is the sort of dad who would console his teenage daughter’s boyfriend when he crushes the boy’s father in an election. This the most recent development from a fascinating profile in New Yorker of the Republican candidate’s daughters– particularly Liddy Huntsman, the one with Saturday Night Live aspirations– and the tension within the Huntsman campaign about their comedic recklessness.

The profile, by Ryan Lizza, has some hilarious anecdotes about the sisters in it, which lead the story. One, in particular, reveals that at least one of the Huntsman girls has been a repeated problem for his political career, though one he has always been able to temper:

When Huntsman was running for governor of Utah, in 2004, Liddy, then sixteen, began seeing the son of his Democratic opponent. The night before the election, Huntsman found his daughter at her computer engaged in a tearful instant-messaging chat with the boy, Briggs Matheson. “My dad was, like, ‘What is going on?’ ” Liddy said. “I’m, like, ‘You can’t win, Dad. Briggs says his life is over if you win.’ ” Huntsman sat down at his daughter’s computer and, pretending to be her, consoled the distraught boy over I.M. (The next day, he crushed Briggs’s father at the polls.)

The article also indicates that there is some tension between former campaign staff and the Huntsmans, whose Twitter account is run without much of any oversight by the campaign, as are their videos, like their parody of Herman Cain‘s “Smoking” ad. The girls seem to feel the campaign doesn’t understand their sense of humor. “We are the only ones providing some honest humor in this race,” said Abby Huntsman, while Liddy Huntsman– the one who tweeted a “Panda Express” foreign policy joke at Mitt Romney— seemed entirely dismissive of the concern.

Another confession? Seeing someone like Romney towering over Huntsman in the polls is “humbling to them”– that being the candidate they seem least enthralled with. “Romney will do whatever he can to be President, and everyone knows that,” Abby Huntsman told Lizza, disappointed that this seemed not to deter his campaign.

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