Not surprisingly one of the Republicans trailing badly in the race for the GOP presidential nomination is downplaying the importance of the polls that say he's trailing badly. But it's hard to imagine former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman will gain any ground when he discounts the current opinions of likely primary voters as "absolute nonsense".

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Appearing this morning on CBS's Face the Nation, the moderate Republican and President Barack Obama's former ambassador to China was asked about recent polls that show he is favored by barely one percent of voters. He could have simply said it's early in the campaign or expressed belief that his support will increase after the upcoming debates. But instead, Mr. Huntsman chose to deliver a stinging rebuke to those who support more conservative candidates by saying, "the early polls are absolute nonsense at this point in the game."

The truth is at this point in the game, most Republican primary voters know what he's about. As the perceived media favorite among GOP candidates, Mr. Huntsman has become one of the most visible contenders. In the last two weeks alone, he has appeared on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight and John King, USA, Fox News Channel's On The Record with Greta Van Susteren and CNBC's The Kudlow Report.

With today's interview on Face the Nation, he again had an opportunity to tout his jobs plan modeled on the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission and his call for "Clearing out the cobwebs, clearing out the deductions, the corporate welfare, the subsidies, buying down the rate." In an attempt to head off his critics, Governor Huntsman added, "when I hear people saying you can take it down to zero, all I'm saying is you have to be real about the math here."

Mr. Huntsman should be real about some math himself. Starting with the meaning of one percent.