<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"No one was surprised last night when word spread that Jon Huntsman would be exiting the presidential race. Huntsman had needed a miraculous, bounce-providing, race-shaking finish in New Hampshire last week, and he didn't get it. For all the pep of his \"ticket to ride\" election-night speech in Manchester, it was generally understood that he wouldn't be able to continue in South Carolina for more than a few days without a massive influx of cash of and support. Those few days have run out.\n\nThe only real surprise was Huntsman's decision to endorse Mitt Romney immediately.\n\nAfter all, this is the man he spent the last week accusing of putting politics ahead of country. So what changed? A Republican campaign operative confirms that Huntsman and Romney spoke last night, though the source wouldn't share the details of what he called a \"private conversation.\" One would expect Romney\u2014who, with the nomination in smelling-distance, must keep up the air of inevitability\u2014to have ponied up something in exchange for an immediate endorsement: help retiring his campaign debt, perhaps, or a prime speaking slot at the GOP convention this summer. But Romney didn't attended Huntsman's withdrawal/endorsement speech this morning, and his statement on his former rival was late and short. So, probably not.\n\n \u00C2\u00A0\n\n For a trail-weary but earnest campaigner like Huntsman, the decision really was more of a personal one: how to leave the most positive imprint, such as it may be, on the campaign?\n\n\"I think the challenge for timing a drop-out is that you want to save face,\" the operative told me this morning. \"You want to end on an upswing if at all possible. Beating expectations in New Hampshire and then receiving another big newspaper endorsement [from South Carolina's The State] was an upswing. At a certain point, the upswings are few and far between, or may be totally M.I.A.\u2014probably the case with Perry. Hard to make a good exit at that point.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/huntsmans-out-why-now>