Huntsman
I have to admit, most political moves don’t genuinely surprise me, but this one has. President Obama has snagged Utah Governor John Huntsman to be his ambassador to China.
Surprising for two reasons:
1. Ambassadorships are often more political than policy-making, a gifting of a sweet life to donors or other people in a politicians orbit. For certain countries, however, an ambassadorship entails a substantial portfolio, and sometimes the person given the post becomes, in a way, a de facto shaper of that policy. Look to the current ambassador of Iran, for instance, or other middle eastern or rougeish states, and they tend to just as often be wonks as diplomats. Huntsman is a pretty big political fish to throw into an ambassadorship without allowing him a pretty big ownership of that portfolio—throwing him to China is an eyebrow-raising move for no other reason than that puts China pretty high on the radar of political priorities.
And Hunstman, apparently, is the real deal as far as China goes. He did his Mormon mission on Taiwan, is fluent in Mandarin, and served as ambassador to Singapore to the first president Bush and as deputy US trade representative for W. He has a strong background mostly in three areas: trade, energy, and human rights.
2. The real story here, though, is political, and it’s on this point I find myself most surprised. For those of us looking forward within the Republican party, Huntsman leaving (he was only just re-elected) to take a position in the Obama administration is world shaking. Huntsman has been a real, real good dark horse for a shot at the Presidency in 2012 or 2016. He’s smart, young, pragmatic, and a very good prospect of being maybe one guy who could restarted a middle-of-the-road mainstream conservatism.
He has, in the last year or so, more or less made it look like he knew it too, and “testing the waters” for a future presidential run is putting it mildly. However, a primary run for Huntsman would not be unproblematic. Given he’s a Mormon, for civil unions, an environmentalist, and really fairly progressive for a modern governor of a very red state, he was going to have to face a lot of crap from the Republican base. One might have expected him to spend the next few years building up a conservative cred ala Mike Sanford. Instead, he appears to have opted out entirely. Putting him in the cabinet means he’s basically out for 2012, and while it makes him an even more interesting candidate for 2016, one can’t imagine this helping him dispel the RiNO brigades (I can pretty much write Rush Limbaugh’s Monday “good riddance” spiel for him). It’s hard to read this move as being much short of leaving the party, for now, altogether. For those of us hoping a more moderate GOP might re-emerge from all the intra-party warfare, and the party might not be completely overtaken by the Huckabees, Limbaughs, and Cheneys—well, this is not a good sign.
(and don’t underestimate the mormon angle, as Obama continues to do a pretty good job of shaving off mass swathes of more moderate evangelicals)
I have to say, it’s hard to blame Huntsman. He took a look at the potential battleground for reforming the Republican image, and said “no thanks”. But for progressive conservatism or moderate Republicanism, this is a massive body blow. The crew is now leaving the sinking ship (the passengers have already)—it’s only the rats that remains.