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**Pirate Smile** · 01-27-2011, 12:05 PM

Quote:Jon Huntsman's Inner Circle
By Chris Cillizza

U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman ® appears to be leaning toward a run for president in 2012 and a team of political operatives and fundraisers have begun informal talks and outreach to ensure he could rapidly ramp up if he decides to run.

Talk of a Huntsman presidential bid has been all the rage of late -- ever since a Newsweek article earlier this month made clear he was seriously considering the possibility.

During Chinese President Hu Jintao's official state visit last week, President Obama was even asked by reporters about the prospect of Huntsman, a former Utah governor, challenging him in 2012.

"I couldn't be happier with the ambassador's service, and I'm sure he will be very successful in whatever endeavors he chooses in the future," said Obama. "And I'm sure that him having worked so well for me will be a great asset in any Republican primary."

Huntsman, for his part, has been mum about the possibility of a national bid but the breadth of the team that has formed to prepare for just such an eventuality suggests he is quite serious.

Below is Huntsman's inner circle of advisers -- a group that speaks regularly about the when, where and how of a presidential bid. (Make sure to check out inner circles of the other potential presidential candidates too -- particularly our first inner circle for Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign as there are a number of similarities between the two.)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/...ircle.html
[quote]

I mean really .... FFS... He could win the nomination?!? .... All I can think of is WTF!!!

No Tea Party candidate would show up if the Republicans nominated a moderate Republican who had worked in the Obama Administration and was seen as somewhat positive towards gay rights.

**Ikonoklast** · 01-27-2011, 12:43 PM

...and another Mormon.

**Cha** · 01-27-2011, 01:33 PM

(01-27-2011 12:05 PM)Pirate Smile Wrote:
Quote:Jon Huntsman's Inner Circle
By Chris Cillizza

U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman ® appears to be leaning toward a run for president in 2012 and a team of political operatives and fundraisers have begun informal talks and outreach to ensure he could rapidly ramp up if he decides to run.

Talk of a Huntsman presidential bid has been all the rage of late -- ever since a Newsweek article earlier this month made clear he was seriously considering the possibility.

During Chinese President Hu Jintao's official state visit last week, President Obama was even asked by reporters about the prospect of Huntsman, a former Utah governor, challenging him in 2012.

"I couldn't be happier with the ambassador's service, and I'm sure he will be very successful in whatever endeavors he chooses in the future," said Obama. "And I'm sure that him having worked so well for me will be a great asset in any Republican primary."

Huntsman, for his part, has been mum about the possibility of a national bid but the breadth of the team that has formed to prepare for just such an eventuality suggests he is quite serious.

Below is Huntsman's inner circle of advisers -- a group that speaks regularly about the when, where and how of a presidential bid. (Make sure to check out inner circles of the other potential presidential candidates too -- particularly our first inner circle for Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign as there are a number of similarities between the two.)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/...ircle.html
[quote]

I mean really .... FFS... He could win the nomination?!? .... All I can think of is WTF!!!

No Tea Party candidate would show up if the Republicans nominated a moderate Republican who had worked in the Obama Administration and was seen as somewhat positive towards gay rights.

When I saw the name on the front page I thought it was this guy! Does this mean President Obama will be getting a new Ambassador to China in his 2nd Term in Office? Wink

**RoyGBiv** · 01-27-2011, 01:47 PM

We've discussed this elsewhere.

There's nothing at all new in this story from what came out in Newsweek a few weeks ago. They just keep building on it and adding all kinds of assumptions based on him having said absolutely nothing. Speculation piled on top of speculation in an attempt, imo, to manufacture a rift that doesn't exist.

OnEdit: http://democratsforprogress.com/forum/sh...7#pid12237

**sandnsea** · 01-27-2011, 10:39 PM

He's been high on my list of concerns since I first read about him a few years ago. This guy could absolutely be a Republican nominee, if not 2012, then definitely in 2016. I think that's why Obama got him out of the country.

**Cha** · 01-27-2011, 11:55 PM

(01-27-2011 10:39 PM)sandnsea Wrote: He's been high on my list of concerns since I first read about him a few years ago. This guy could absolutely be a Republican nominee, if not 2012, then definitely in 2016. I think that's why Obama got him out of the country.

Plus he speaks Chinese and is excellent at his job?

**sandnsea** · 01-28-2011, 12:40 AM

(01-27-2011 11:55 PM)Cha Wrote:
(01-27-2011 10:39 PM)sandnsea Wrote: He's been high on my list of concerns since I first read about him a few years ago. This guy could absolutely be a Republican nominee, if not 2012, then definitely in 2016. I think that's why Obama got him out of the country.
Plus he speaks Chinese and is excellent at his job?

Oh he's definitely qualified for the job, that's what makes him so scary. I think he's the only Republican in the country who has real experience and can put two sentences together without sounding like a Smarter Than A Fifth Grader audition.

**Born_A_Truman** · 01-28-2011, 01:10 AM

(01-28-2011 12:40 AM)sandnsea Wrote:
(01-27-2011 11:55 PM)Cha Wrote:
(01-27-2011 10:39 PM)sandnsea Wrote: He's been high on my list of concerns since I first read about him a few years ago. This guy could absolutely be a Republican nominee, if not 2012, then definitely in 2016. I think that's why Obama got him out of the country.
Plus he speaks Chinese and is excellent at his job?

Oh he's definitely qualified for the job, that's what makes him so scary. I think he's the only Republican in the country who has real experience and can put two sentences together without sounding like a Smarter Than A Fifth Grader audition.

He's doomed if past performance (W, Palin, Bachmann) is an indicator.

**Dagnabit** · 01-28-2011, 02:29 AM

I like Obamas dig

Quote:"And I'm sure that him having worked so well for me will be a great asset in any Republican primary."

Hes very subtle Big Grin

**Drunken Irishman** · (This post was last modified: 01-28-2011 04:28 AM by Drunken Irishman.)

I'm a Utahn. I know Huntsman very well.

He has absolutely no shot at the presidency unless he decides to switch parties and run as a Democrat.

1. Huntsman is a moderate by most standards. He was a moderate governor and would be a moderate candidate. This is a guy, after all, who decided to endorse John McCain over Mitt Romney in the Republican Primary, even though Romney was a Mormon with ties to the state. He endorsed McCain because McCain was, wait for it, a moderate.

2. His association with the Obama administration automatically does him in with most of the Republican base. How can they support him knowing he had ties to Pres. Obama - a man they despise? Sure, he's just an ambassador, but it's still connected to the socialist Obama and worse, it ties to the Maoist Communist China! Yikes!

3. Huntsman is LDS. Like Romney, this will be an issue. Like Romney, he will have difficulty convincing conservative Republicans to support him.

4. Utah likes Romney over Huntsman! And it really isn't close.

Quote:Utahns would rather see Mitt Romney than Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in the White House, but they would support either Republican over President Barack Obama in 2012, a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows.

A majority of Utahns, 55 percent, said they preferred Romney to their governor. But just 32 percent chose Huntsman over the former Salt Lake City Olympics leader who lost his bid for the GOP presidential nomination last year.

5. Huntsman believes in global warming and advocated a moderate, if not progressive, stance on gay rights - coming out in favor of civil unions back in 2009.

6. Again, he's Mormon. Romney is Mormon, too - but more acceptable for his newly minted conservative values. Romney will outperform Huntsman in LDS-heavy states like Utah (as I pointed out), Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada. So he won't have a footing in the west like he might have if Romney weren't running. Add the mentioned difficulties with him being LDS, and there really isn't a base of support.

7. Huntsman is smart. He realizes his chances are slim this election cycle. The tea-party is going to dominate the debate in 2012 and probably fade into oblivion when, after getting their asses handed to them in the general by Obama, everyone on the Republican side realizes they're actually hurting the party's chances.

If that's the case, 2016 is probably the best chance for him to take a stab at the presidency.

Biden is probably out as a candidate due to age, which would leave a race very similar to 2008 - where both parties have a contested primary. He won't be going up against Obama, his former boss, and maybe will have time to distance himself from the Obama administration. By that time, the Republicans will be heavily searching for a moderate, good looking and charismatic candidate for their nomination and he fits the bill.

But it's already 2011. The campaign is going to kick off in the next couple of months. Pres. Obama announced his campaign in February of 2007 - essentially around this time prior to the whole presidential election cycle.

The first Democratic Debate was in April.

So candidates are going to be announcing soon. If Huntsman announces, he will have gone straight from serving under the Obama administration to announcing a run for the presidency on the Republican side. There will not be a grace period. He'll have to battle the fact he's an unknown and the questions as to why he accepted that position under Obama.

Now he certainly can say that when the President calls, you can't say no - but it doesn't explain why, for two years (in May) he continued with that position.

He wasn't beholden to Obama. He could have left that position at the end of 2009 or at any point in 2010 and he hasn't.

That will be impossible to reconcile with the base and will doom him in the primary.

**jaxx** · 01-28-2011, 07:09 AM

Good insight DI, thanks. It's going to be interesting to watch the pubs and see how far right they will go in their campaigns.

**Arkana** · 01-28-2011, 11:15 PM

No chance in hell. He's got no money, no name recognition, he's the definition of moderate Republican, he speaks two languages (making him equal to a filthy furriner in teabagger eyes), he works for Obama, and he's a MORMON.

Those last two will be the most decisive factors in killing off his candidacy. The inmates run the asylum in the Grand Old Party now, and there's no place for people like Huntsman.

**Cha** · 01-28-2011, 11:54 PM

Thanks for the interesting analysis, Irish. That's why seeing this was such a Wow

moment..it's too implausible. But, then after reading what RoyG had to say..it made more sense that he probably isn't even going to run.

We will see.

**sandnsea** · 01-29-2011, 12:20 AM

Funny, I agree with everything you say about Huntsman, but come to nearly the exact opposite conclusion. I don't think he'll run in 2012 unless the party hierarchy decides he's their only chance. And imo, whatever the hierarchy wants, they get. See GWB. The biggest reason he won't be running is that nobody knows who he is. Why? Obama got him out of the country, imo, again. Running in 2012 would actually give him a chance to get his name out there, build the ground work for 2016.

By 2016, the Republicans will be fed up with their fringe and will be desperate to present a sane face. I don't see a better one out there than Huntsman. Swing Republicans love to pretend they care about the environment and education and jobs, etc etc etc. They'll also be looking for a way to assuage their guilt over their feelings about Obama. What better way to prove they aren't bigots than to support a Mormon?

He probably won't be the candidate in 2012, but I can see a lot of reasons that running would be a good idea for him right now.

**RoyGBiv** · 01-29-2011, 12:36 AM

(01-29-2011 12:20 AM)sandnsea Wrote: He probably won't be the candidate in 2012, but I can see a lot of reasons that running would be a good idea for him right now.

There has been some speculation he might run in a primary against Orrin Hatch. A recent poll in Utah determined that he had more support than Hatch among Republicans at 48% for the entire potential field of Republicans.

I encourage those interested in this to seek out articles by James Fallows of the Atlantic. He's laid out the issues rather cleanly and comes to the same general conclusion. Huntsman would be a fool to run in 2012 but might well be the man to beat in 2016.

An attempt at Senate in 2012 would place him well for 2016 and the Presidency.

But I will say again. This ALL comes from a Newsweek article publish weeks ago in which the author interviewed Huntsman, asked if he intended to run for President in 2012, and witnessed Huntsman refuse to comment just as he has stated he would refuse to comment on any political questions since the *day* he accepted the ambassador's position. The Newsweek writer then interpreted this to mean he might run. Others from the Washington Post have blown this out of ALL proportion.

It's an attempt to drive a wedge between Obama and his foreign policy team. The Republicans are desperate for an Obama foreign policy failure, particularly with regard to China. They don't want it linked to Huntsman, and, at least as important, they're not as likely to get it with Huntsman there. He's been doing his job very well.

**OptimistesMaddie** · 01-29-2011, 01:46 PM

No one knows who this guy is. This is why you can never trust a Republican, President Obama gave him a prime position and then gets stabbed in the back. How can he trust him now to perform his current duties>

**RoyGBiv** · 01-29-2011, 02:19 PM

(01-29-2011 01:46 PM)OptimistesMaddie Wrote: President Obama gave him a prime position and then gets stabbed in the back. How can he trust him now to perform his current duties>

Huntsman has not stabbed Obama in the back. (At least, he hasn't done so yet, and I doubt he will.)

This is partly what this is all about, attempting to generate a rift between Obama and his appointees that doesn't actually exist.

**Pirate Smile** · 01-31-2011, 06:56 AM

Politico has a big article now that the White House expects him to resign to run. So friggin bizzare.

[/b]The White House expects Jon Huntsman, the U.S. Ambassador to China, to resign his post this spring to explore a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, top Democrats said.

-snip-
Huntsman has avoided publicly discussing the possibility of a bid against the president who appointed him, but he’s sending signals that make clear he’s serious about a run now – not in 2016, when many top officials in both the GOP and the White House assumed he’d run.

-snip-
At an off-the-record dinner Saturday night, at which Huntsman was also present, White House Chief of Staff William Daley kept up the mockery.

“It’s also good to see Jon Huntsman, our ambassador to China,” Daley said, according to a source in the room. “Or as we call him around the White House: the Manchurian Candidate. I want Jon to know that the president has no hard feelings. In fact, he just did an interview with the Tea Party Express saying how integral he has been to the success of the Obama administration.”

For all their quips, Obama officials are a tad irritated at the barely-veiled presidential moves of their own ambassador in one of the most important countries in the world.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/011...z1CcJRg62f

**Cha** · 02-05-2011, 06:49 PM

(01-31-2011 06:56 AM)Pirate Smile Wrote: -snip-
At an off-the-record dinner Saturday night, at which Huntsman was also present, White House Chief of Staff William Daley kept up the mockery.

“It’s also good to see Jon Huntsman, our ambassador to China,” Daley said, according to a source in the room. “Or as we call him around the White House: the Manchurian Candidate. I want Jon to know that the president has no hard feelings. In fact, he just did an interview with the Tea Party Express saying how integral he has been to the success of the Obama administration.”

For all their quips, Obama officials are a tad irritated at the barely-veiled presidential moves of their own ambassador in one of the most important countries in the world. [/i]

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/011...z1CcJRg62f

Wow! That's funny what Daley said! He sounds like he has a good sense of humor~ roflmao

**RoyGBiv** · 02-05-2011, 06:58 PM

The majority of this article is speculative, unsourced crap that is, once again, trying to stir something up.

I'd like to know their source for this, for example ...

Quote:For all their quips, Obama officials are a tad irritated at the barely-veiled presidential moves of their own ambassador in one of the most important countries in the world[/b]. [/i]

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/011...z1CcJRg62f

Politico is not our friend.

**Ikonoklast** · 02-07-2011, 06:39 PM

(02-05-2011 06:58 PM)RoyGBiv Wrote: The majority of this article is speculative, unsourced crap that is, once again, trying to stir something up.

I'd like to know their source for this, for example ...

Quote:For all their quips, Obama officials are a tad irritated at the barely-veiled presidential moves of their own ambassador in one of the most important countries in the world[/b]. [/i]

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/011...z1CcJRg62f

Politico is not our friend.

Politico NEVER prints their sources, it's always the "...someone said this...unnamed thought that...a source overheard this...." crapola.

It's all MADE UP BULLSHIT.

**Pirate Smile** · 01-31-2011, 06:38 PM

Well, now he has submitted his resignation and will be actually leaving his post in April. Alrighty then...

I would just say people should never turn their back on this guy because you certainly could not expect that he wouldn't stick a knife in it.

**Joan Ruaiz** · 01-31-2011, 07:32 PM

He's just going to make the tea party look even crazier.....and possibly divide Romney's votes. Him leaving administration is much less harmful to the mayhem he may cause his own party. Of course, if he chooses to run as an indie, I'm not sure how he would fare, or who he would harm most. We shall see.