By Scott Conroy - September 16, 2011

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Though more than a few political observers have already written Jon Huntsman's political obituary, it is New Hampshire voters like Bob Jones who give the former Utah governor reason to believe that the pundits may have jumped the gun.

A retiree from the southeastern New Hampshire town of Exeter, Jones is in many ways the embodiment of the aggressively independent and discerning electorate that makes elections in this state so difficult to predict.

Though he typically votes Republican, Jones is a registered independent. He cast his ballot for Barack Obama in 2008 but has no intention of doing so again in 2012.

Before Jones makes his decision, he wants to see as many of the Republican candidates as possible -- most of them, at least.

“I’m less interested in hearing from Bachmann and Perry,” he said after listening to Huntsman address his retirement community on Thursday. “From what I know from reading and listening to them, their concepts of the world just don’t align with mine. I have trouble with people who want to bring religion into politics. I have trouble with people who don’t have a belief in science.”

Jones praised Huntsman as someone who is “very articulate” and said he appreciated the “straightforward ideas” that the candidate offered in his stump speech. “The problem is figuring out how to make it happen,” he added.

Indeed, Huntsman’s inability to “make it happen” thus far has been a bit of a head-scratcher in a state that appears to be tailor-made for him.

In an election year that will not feature a contested Democratic primary, Huntsman would -- on paper, at least -- be well-positioned to pull in wide swaths of independent voters disillusioned with President Obama but hesitant to vote for an ideologically purist Republican.

But so far, Huntsman has barely made a dent here in the polls. He has by far the largest New Hampshire staff of any candidate, has campaigned here in earnest for three months, and yet has little to show for it.

The very idea of his candidacy causes eyes to roll in conservative circles around the country, as the question is being asked with increasing regularity: Why is the media even paying any attention to a candidate who polls in the low single digits and harbors positions on issues like the environment and gay rights that are anathema to the Republican base? And oh, yeah, he worked for the Obama administration.

But despite such inhospitable political headwinds, conversations with more than a dozen New Hampshire voters revealed that not a single one of them has decided on a candidate, and all were open to being swayed by the former Utah governor, who has made this his do-or-die state.

In a UNH/WMUR poll conducted in July, 75 percent of likely Republican primary voters said they were undecided, and a scant 8 percent said that they had definitely settled on a candidate.