I have no idea how things will turn out for Jon Huntsman in this campaign. Maybe the party will give in to its increasingly evident gag-reflex about Mitt Romney -- and also gag on Newt Gingrich, as it has already done with candidates Bachmann, Perry, and Cain. Then unless it's ready to go with Rick Santorum or Ron Paul, that would leave ... Huntsman. Or maybe not.

However the rest of the Huntsman 2012 campaign goes, two things about it so far deserve note.

One is Huntsman's ongoing attempts to offer what in normal years would be considered "serious" policy plans.

- Three months ago, he brazenly admitted that he believed in evolution and would "trust scientists on global warming," in his "call me crazy" Tweet.

- Last week in a debate, he (with Ron Paul) expanded on his view that it was time to cut our losses in Afghanistan, while the others were equating toughness with long-term troop presence there.

- Last week he published a CNN item arguing for a more realistic (lower-budget) military strategy. Eg, most current proposals "miss the target in two respects. First, they let resources drive strategy, rather than using strategy to drive force structure and capabilities. Second, they fail to fundamentally alter our defense posture -- so any short-term savings will be quickly erased." You could disagree in detail, but it's an improvement over the reflexive "don't cut anything" we're getting from the others except Paul.