From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media.

Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield are both off this week.

I'm Mike Pesca.

There's a type of candidate who engenders a particular type of coverage.

The candidate the media loves to love.

He's nowhere right now, but he's going to seem quite impressive to, I think, a fair number of voters.

He's a guy who's doing things differently. He's got some very progressive ideas about where

to take the Republican Party. People want to come, see him in action, talk to him, touch him.

This object of the media's affection frequently exhibits a civility and willingness to compromise,

which the most Machiavellian among us might note, are fine

virtues for one's enemies to have. The candidate the media loves to love will not be afraid to rip

into his own party, but be genteel when it comes to party stalwarts of the opposite stripe.

In the 2008 election, John McCain at least began his campaign as the media candidate.

This time around,

it's the former governor of Utah. I'm John Huntsman and I'm running for president of the United States. Thank you all. Being the media-besotted candidate may not be a great position for a Republican

in this age of brickbats and bright bars. And Huntsman seems to sense this. His walk back some of the positions

which got him called sensible in the first place. For example, he now says it's not the right time

for the cap and trade policies he once supported. Also, while he took stimulus money as governor of Utah,

he now says he doesn't think the stimulus worked well. Slate's Dave Weigel says Huntsman's

supposed moderation while loved by the media will be seen as a vice in the eyes of Republican voters,

especially the ones from states that hold early caucuses and primaries. It's something that's not

comprehensible possibly for liberal voters or for independent voters. Conservative voters are convinced, one, that

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