Jon Huntsman hopes to appeal to the young voters who don't think President Obama's cool anymore. But maybe Obama had an easier time appealing to millennials because he wasn't the father of one. Malia and Sasha were 10 and 7 in 2008, and they're still young enough that if they do anything stupid on the Internet, it will be considered cute instead of embarrassing. It seems less likely Huntsman's 20-something daughters will get the same leeway. Following in Meghan McCain's footsteps, Mary Anne, Liddy, and Abby Huntsman have begun tweeting as @Jon2012girls.
Roll Call's Alexandra Jaffe reports the Huntsman sisters want to let their friends know what they're up to and reach out to young people. So far, they've done that via a rather humblebrag-ish tweet, "Any suggestions for Orlando hotspots? Clearly bored. Plank you and goodnight," with a photo of Liddy planking in the middle of what looks like a swank hotel room:
Doug Heye, former communications director for the Republican National Committee, speculated (disappointingly) that the Huntsman ladies would be working under "some mechanism to ensure that they stay on message." Perhaps that's why Liddy took down her old Twitter account, which is a shame, because she posted things like this:
That account was the basis of a Wonkette post in May, titled Possible Glamorous Daughter of GOP Candidate Discovered. Wonkette explained, "A very anonymous newspaper man sends us [Liddy's] picture and suggests the 2012 haughty campaign daughter role will go to young Miss Liddy Huntsman, daughter of alleged GOP candidate Jon Huntsman."
The last haughty campaign daughter, Meghan McCain, didn't have the easiest time in her quest to become DC-Internet famous. Meghan tried to help her dad reach out to youngsters with her blog, McCainBlogette, and eventually got fired. Since then, she's gotten a Daily Beast column, tweeted a boob photo, and asked to work for Donald Trump. Likewise, Sarah Palin's kids didn't help her appeal to young voters. Even Palin's devoted web guru Rebecca Mansour thought Bristol was a bit embarrassing. And perhaps candidate Huntsman knows they're playing with fire: He's much more frequently photographed on the campaign trail with his 12-year-old daughter Gracie Mei.
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Elspeth Reeve
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