Glossy magazines like profiling Jon Huntsman, the comfortably cosmopolitan candidate in a GOP field aspiring to connect with rural voters. And Vogue's newly published article, pointed out by Ben Smith, follows similar Huntsman profiles past (see: Esquire, New York Times Magazine) by describing him as the "smooth" candidate whose campaign may be more of a test-run for 2016 than anything. There are some nice details about his family, he's photographed by Annie Leibovitz, and he generally comes across as a good guy. What we found telling in Vogue's take, however, was the opening anecdote where the former Utah governor finds himself at a South Carolina BBQ campaign stop and leads his address with a cringe-worthy (in print, at least) line:

The political milieu is evident this sticky July evening at Mutt’s BBQ, where around 100 conservative activists and assorted curiosity seekers have come for a gander at Jon Huntsman.....Surveying the motley crowd with an ironic expression, [Huntsman] begins, "All I can tell you is that I never thought I would be making an appearance at Mutt’s BBQ."

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Erik Hayden