Huntsman expects success in New Hampshire; calls Romney a 'well-lubricated weather vane'

SALT LAKE CITY — GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. predicted Friday that New Hampshire voters will rally around him in the nation's first primary.

Huntsman stopped short of saying he would win in New Hampshire but said he is moving up in the polls there, sparking what he said was a 240 percent boost in fundraising.

"We're going to do great in New Hampshire. We've gone from the margin of error candidate, zero, to low double digits. I like our position," he said. "More than that, I like the way we're connecting with the people of New Hampshire."

He has lagged behind the GOP field in virtually every poll and his campaign was reportedly almost out of cash two weeks ago. Huntsman contributed about half of the $4 million his campaign reported raising through Sept. 30.

The former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador to China was in Salt Lake City for the dedication of the $110 million, 156,000-square foot expansion of the hospital at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, named for his family.

Huntsman, among the dignitaries speaking at the ceremony, joked that former President Richard Nixon's declaration of a national war on cancer came at a time when Republicans still "believed in science."

He reminded reporters of the quip during a brief media conference after the ceremony and said voters are looking for "sane, common-sense, practical, problem-solving leadership."

And he took a swipe at the other Mormon in the race, former Utah Olympic leader Mitt Romney. Romney, who has the support of most Utah GOP leaders in both his 2008 and 2012 bids, has been a frontrunner.

"I would have to say that at a time when the American people are looking for leadership, being a well-lubricated weather vane, being on different sides of the critically important issues of the day as Mitt Romney has found himself over and over again, is not what the American people are looking for," Huntsman said.

He later made a similar statement on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

"You can't be a perfectly lubricated weather vane on the important issues of the day, whether it's Libya, whether it's the debt ceiling, whether it's the discussion around the Kasich bill in Ohio, where Gov. Romney has been missing in action in terms of showing any kind of leadership," Huntsman told Blitzer, according to a transcript of the interview.