Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr.'s nomination to be ambassador to China means... what?
It is a bit of a masterstroke. Huntsman was not yet in a "frontrunner" position for the 2012 nomination, but he would have certainly hastened an intra-party conflict that needs to happen in order for the GOP to recover. Now, a fairly orthodox 2012 Republican presidential primary is inevitable unless someone else drops in. The back story to this will be fascinating... Huntsman's political team is astonished.... as many in the White House are pleasantly surprised.The appointment is freighted with intrigue, and looks like political genius by the White House: It's like John Edwards or John Kerry joining the Bush administration in 2001. And the GOP is left with no leading moderate voice. Huntsman was talking about immigration, the environment and gay rights in ways that would have gotten him endless elite media coverage in the run-up to 2012. Some Huntsman advisers realized that GOP primary voters might be more prepared to accept his views in 2016, after a 1964-like cataclysm in 2012. But at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, it was clear he was interested in running this time.
though I work on the other side of the aisle, it's my impression that winning the Republican nomination requires some Foreign Policy bona fides -- with the one exception being George W Bush in 2000, when the issue was on the back-burner. Huntsman has the domestic side covered, and with this appointment, the foreign policy. A debate with Jindal, Thune or Crist in 2016, Huntsman now can present a fresh foreign policy vision that will not be the generic, AEI-produced white paper. He can run against the Beltway as a conservative, pragmatic, seasoned leader with fresh ideas for the 21st century.
Sure he COULD run, but would he run against the man who appointed him Ambassador to China? It seems unlikely. When was the last time someone ran against a President who had appointed him to high office? James McClellan against Lincoln, maybe?
I hear he is good at filling out credit applications in Mandarin Chinese.
Not only was Hunstman not yet in front-runner position for 2012 but he wasn't ever going to be. Republican nominees are always better known than Huntsman. (McCain, W, Dole, Bush Sr, Reagan, Ford, Nixon) Huntsman may have been interested in running in 12 to get himself out there and with nothing else to do but, as Michael Steele, pointed out (honestly), it's hard for Mormon to win a GOP primary. It would be near impossible for Huntsman when polls show he's not even the first choice of his fellow Mormons. And he would be a punching bag for candidates trying to prove their conservative credentials. It sounds like he'd love to be in China and have this job. So why not do that instead of a hopeless nomination fight to win the chance for a hopeless general election? Let Romney take his last chance and someone else be the Barry Goldwater of 2012. Hey, maybe Huntsman will replace Hillary at State for a 2nd Obama term and '16 will be between two nominees who served as Obama's Secretary of State.