The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is going on the attack against the other GOTP candidates saying the U.S. is a “center-right” country politically and the public is “crying out for a sensible middle ground”.

Huntsman – who has no chance of being the GOTP nominee – says his Republican rivals as well as President Barack Obama are on the political “fringes.” Huntsman says Obama is too liberal and there are Republican candidates who are too far to the right and have “zero substance.”

Huntsman let loose with his sharpest barbs at Reverend Ricky Perry and Michele “Krazy” Bachmann.

Huntsman said Ricky was wrong for expressing skepticism about manmade global warming and for criticizing the nation’s central banker. “I think when you find yourself at an extreme end of the Republican Party, you make yourself unelectable,” he said in interview, on ABC’s “This Week.”

Huntsman also attacked Krazy’s ridiculous claims she could bring gasoline prices below $2 if elected president. “I just don’t know what world that comment would come from. … That is completely unrealistic. And, again, it’s talking about things that, you know, may pander to a particular group or sound good at the time, but it just simply is not founded in reality.”

You go Jon! Wow, a GOTP candidate who has to tell the truth about his opponents in order to get press time, and isn’t afraid to say he’s a moderate – of course in the Tea Partista reality that is today’s GOTP that’s as good as the political kiss of death.

Huntsman continues to speak optimistically about his chances in 2012 in spite of lagging poll numbers, “I’m confident we’re getting there. But I’m even more confident that the message that we bring to this race, that of a center-right message for a center-right country that is looking for common-sense solutions and a leader who’s actually been there and done that in the marketplace and can apply those same principles now to a nation that so desperately needs it.”

Of course saying your optimistic about a campaign that so far is polling no better than 1 or 2 % may be equated to the Captain of the Titanic saying there was still a good chance of making into New York after hitting the ice berg; of course it’s possible – I suppose – for the front runners to all eventually appear too conservative – even to Republicans – and Huntsman could squeak it out – well not really, but we’ll give Huntsman the optimistic edge for now.