I CAN ONLY ASSUME HUNTSMAN IS TRYING TO LOSE

Politico reports:

Perhaps the biggest surprise at last weekend's Republican Leadership Conference was the second-place straw poll finish of Jon Huntsman.

... how did he snag so many votes?

Partly due to the effort of a New Orleans Republican named Bryan Wagner.

An influential former city councilor and big McCain backer, Wagner is close to former Rep. Joseph Cao.

In an interview, Wagner said he, Cao and New Orleans school board member Brett Bonin talked up Huntsman to their friends in the days leading up the gathering....

That's how Huntsman did it? By enlisting someone who's friends with Joseph Cao?

Joseph Cao, the only Republican in the House of Representatives to vote for the health care bill?

Oh yeah, that's really going to make a favorable impression on GOP primary voters.

The longer this goes on, the more I think Huntsman is running some sort of Producers-style scam in which he stands to gain if he cons all sorts of people into backing him and then sets himself up to lose as spectacularly as possible. Except in his case, the scam is actually going to work.