Obama naming Huntsman ambassador to China
President Barack Obama named Republican Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. as his pick for ambassador to China, likely removing one of his strongest potential challengers in the 2012 presidential campaign from the running.
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Huntsman is often mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2012, although some of his advisers think the party's primary voters will be more prepared to accept his moderate views in 2016 if the party suffers a 1964-like cataclysm at the polls in 2012. While conservative on social issues, Huntsman takes more centrist positions on the environment and gay rights. He shocked the Republican Party last year by announcing support for civil unions. He supported a regional cap-and-trade effort to reduce global warming, and has called on his party not to reject science showing that climate change is real.
In contrast to other Republican governors, he accepted his state’s allotment from the economic stimulus package – and, in fact, said in a February interview with POLITICO that $787 billion wasn’t large enough.
He was also critical of the Republican leadership in Congress, saying “we will be irrelevant as a party until we become the part of solutions and until we become the party or preeminence.”
Obama's political gurus were watching Huntsman. Campaign manager David Plouffe described Huntsman this month as "the one person in that party who might be a potential presidential candidate."
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