Jon Huntsman Admits He is Running for Vice President Not President

Jon Huntsman essentially admitted that he is running for Vice President not President in a CNN interview with Piers Morgan. What's more intriguing is that he offered himself as ticket-balancing moderate to a Tea Party candidate.

Piers Morgan: "Could you ever imagine running as a running mate to someone like Mitt Romney?"

Jon Huntsman: "There’d be too many jokes about that, no I can't imagine that at all."

Piers Morgan: "What about a Tea Party candidate? If Michele Bachmann continued to get real traction and she came to you and said, 'Look, you're the other part of the party here, together we can create sweet music.'"

Jon Huntsman: "You know, if you love this country, you serve this country. Every time I've been asked to serve over different administrations from Reagan to the two Bushes to President Obama, I have the same answer and that is: If you love this country, you serve her. And so if you're in a position to better the country by bringing whatever background you have to bear, whatever experiences to use in fine-tuning our future, I'll be the first person to sign up. Absolutely."

Yes, Huntsman backed off the idea somewhat by asserting that he believe he would win the nomination for President. But that's pro forma, and not really very realistic given where he is in the race.

This comes after a couple of weeks where Jon Hunstman has hit the Tea Party pretty hard, particularly on failing to support the debt ceiling increase. But in saying he would serve under a Tea Party President, he is finally giving the Tea Party some credibility and showing the Tea Party some respect.

Of course, Jon Huntsman is not the only Republican candidate for President who is really running for Vice President. In fact, until a generic Republican who can convincingly beat Barack Obama emerges, they all are.