Presidential contender Jon Huntsman hinted on CNN Monday he would consider running for vice president on a Republican ticket headed by Rep. Michele Bachmann, as he has always served when asked, because “if you love this country, you serve this country.”



CNN’s Piers Morgan asked the former Utah governor “If Michele Bachmann continued to get real traction, and she came to you and said: Look, you’re the other part of the party. Together we can create sweet music. Could you countenance such an idea?”



Huntsman replied, “You know, if you love this country, you serve this country. Every time I've been asked to serve over different administrations— from Reagan, to the two Bushes, to President Obama — I have the same answer, and that is if you love this country, you serve her.”



“And so if you’re in a position to better the country, to bring whatever background you have to bear, whatever experiences to use in fine-tuning our future, I’ll be the first person to sign up, absolutely,” said Huntsman, who most recently served as U.S. ambassador to China.



Morgan wondered whether Huntsman hinting he could run on a Bachmann-led ticket might not indicate he was conceding he will not garner the GOP nomination.



“This is a hypothetical conversation — and I give you more or less, a hypothetical answer,” Huntsman said. “That’s OK — we’re going to win — and I have no doubt about that. I think we have the background, I think we have the temperament, I think we’re right on the issues.



“At the right time, we’ll have this conversation with hopefully a very strong list of potential candidates. I hope we’re in that position to be able to do the analysis — I think we will be,” he said.



Morgan also asked Huntsman his opinion of the tea party.



“I think we’re having discussions today about fiscal responsibility because of the tea party,” Huntsman said “It was a manifest — and I saw this in China. You know, the rise of the tea party — a total manifestation of American democracy. You wouldn’t see that happen anywhere else.

“Rising up from different corners of the country, yelling and screaming about something they feel passionately about — I think it’s good for the system — I really do,” he said. “I think it’s putting the kind of pressure on elected officials and narrowing the focus of debate around fiscal sanity and responsibility, which makes it good.”