JON HUNTSMAN'S

BETHESDA

CONNECTION

Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman was once a Bethesda resident. When he was a child, his father moved here to take a White House job. The Huntsmans lived in exclusive and expensive Spring Hill, off Massachusetts Avenue. Governor Huntsman attended Westbrook Elementary School.

This was reported by the Washington Post a few months ago, but if you are a lifelong Bethesda resident, these stories are also passed down from neighbor to neighbor or witnessed firsthand. For example, Donald Rumsfeld once lived in Westmoreland Hills, right next door to the Huntsmans' neighborhood. One old tale Rumsfeld's former neighbors tell is how a truck would come and pick him up when it snowed in the winter.

I wonder if Gov. Huntsman went to Farrell's (now the location of Anglo Dutch Pool & Toys) and Bowl America (now Bowlmor Lanes) on Westbard Avenue during those years. I'm pretty sure he would remember the old railroad that passed through there then. It would have been the B&O Railroad then, but was Chessie System and then CSX when I was a kid.

It's a sad statement about American politics today that Gov. Huntsman has not been considered a front runner, with his record and experience. He now has front-runner status only through his old-fashioned shoe leather campaigning across New Hampshire. Anyone interested in politics is going to enjoy a very unpredictable weekend of contentious debates, retail campaigning by the candidates, and Tuesday's primary election.

So Bethesda has a hometown candidate in the race, and a hometown athlete going to the summer Olympics in London, and a famous comic book writer whose latest Marvel title - Winter Soldier #1 - goes on sale in early February.

It's no wonder Bethesda is rated the smartest town in America!