Huntsman, in a thinly-veiled barb directed toward former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), criticized candidates who failed to stake out a firm position on the debt-ceiling fight in Congress. Romney had kept quiet until yesterday, when he announced he opposed the agreement that ultimately passed through Congress.
"Whether it was the president who didn't stand up early enough to find a solution here, or whether it's some of my opponents, who have shown very little leadership on this, the fact of the matter is that the president has had two and a half years to do the most important thing the American people expect him to do: that's expand the economy, that's create jobs, that's infuse some sense of confidence in our economy," Huntsman said Tuesday on Fox News.
The former ambassador to China was the only GOP presidential candidate to endorse the debt-ceiling deal and, before that, the more conservative proposal put forth by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).