Jon Huntsman vows to stay in the race for president after finishing third in New Hampshire. That’s better than some other candidates who should probably hang it up did tonight. But here’s the thing: he finished third in a state where he has camped out for months, where the semi-open primary system allows Democrats and people who are satisified with the Obama presidency to vote for him, and where Ron Paul was the only candidate to Mitt Romney’s right who could break 20 percent.

The contest is about to move South. We are also going to see some closed primaries. Huntsman is a better candidate than his campaign, but it is hard to see him getting much of a bounce from this. John Sununu groused on TV earlier something to the effect of, “Why does anyone care what Jon Huntsman will be doing after tomorrow?” That’s the threshold question Huntsman must answer at this point.