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Huntsman to China [Split]
Captain Carrot
Alexandria, VARegistered User regular
Alexandria, VARegistered User regular
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Though, I'm actually pretty surprised Huntsman would accept this. I'm not really sussing out what his angle on it could be; the political calculus doesn't seem to work out.
Thanatos, diplomatic posts aren't something you can use immediately to run off of, but they do serve as a nice addition to the resume when you are ready. Builds foreign policy cred. Obviously Huntsman doesn't have much of a prayer NOW, but maybe later on he can use this to help himself after the GOP's gotten back on its feet to some degree. In the meantime, he gets out of the way of the circular firing squad. He runs to China, keeps his head down for the worst of it, comes back after sanity has regained a foothold.
Here's a timeline. (To contrast, Bush went through seven UN ambassadors.)
Yeah, though for important posts I'd imagine the limiting factor is how long the person is willing to stay, since people tend to rarely screw the pouch that badly in high profile gigs. I was just wondering if anyone knew how long before people tended to burn out.
edit: And Gosling has what I was looking for. So he could conceivably stay until the 2016 primaries, if the republican party has started to sane up by then.
Plus his record stays clean pretty much right when State budgets are going to look horrific. Nobody would really want to be a Governor right now because you're the raise taxes and cut services guy. Now he's former Governor of Utah, Ambassador to China, and he'll probably round something else up administratively (maybe GOP Chair?) for the '16 primary.
Ambassador counts as an office. At worst he's lining himself up to be a natural running mate. Look at Bush the Greater. He went from Ambassador to the UN to Chairman of the RNC to Ambassador to China to Director of CIA to Veep to President. It isn't quite as direct as from the governor's mansion, but it's been done.
Finding a stable position out of the way of party politics is a pretty smart move at this point in time.
I know he's pro civil unions for gays and recognizes climate change as real, not sure about his other views, but yeah, that puts him way off to the left of most Republicans (and hell, Ben Nelson).
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The same was said about legislators just a few years ago. Let alone a Freshman Senator.
True, but at least it's understood what legislators do. I don't even get what ambassadors are really useful for in a world with instant global communications technology.
All the better for him, because now he gets to explain just how important and super awesome he is.
This was highly effective for Bill Richardson, after all.
Apparently this is I disagree with moniker day.
You forget, Bill Richardson was running against all stars. Huntsman would be running against Jindal and company.
I really don't think you're going to ever replace ambassadors to other countries with two internet terminals for all official communication. Especially when you're trying to come to agreements that require persuasion and back-and-forth diplomacy.
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A point, he'd also be competing for the votes of nutjobs who like Jindal and company. Though hopefully less of them in 7 years than there are today.
*Vice President. The Cabinet can't make the jump anymore.
*Senator. NOT the House.
*Governor.
*Top military brass combined with at least one story that can be started in a deep-throated voice with the words "So there Ah wuzz..."
The man's spent a decent chunk of his life in Taiwan and Singapore (the former as a Mormon missionary, the latter as ambassador under Bush I). Maybe he decided that he really prefers life in Southeast Asia.
Also, an angle that hasn't been brought up here yet: Al Giordano thinks this is part of an effort by Obama to reach out to Mormons. They've been treated as second-class citizens by the GOP (especially by Evangelicals) for years; Giordano sees this as an overture to try to convince a few Mormons (in the now up-for-grabs Mountain West) that the Democratic party is willing to treat them as equals.
Didn't he want to be SecState, but got shut out because Donald Rumsfeld and Herbert Walker didn't see eye to eye when Rumsfeld was Ford's chief of staff?
Utah's AG is going to fight him in the primary.
Exactly. Richardson did a horrible job explaining what he did, what the role of permanent representative to the UN is good for, and why he mattered. It's not like he did that well of a job using it to run for governor of New Mexico. He rode into town and said "Here I am, I have a shitton of Washington/DNC donors and am the most famous person running." And that's how he won. It was... It was Hillary's 2008 campaign against nobodies and a co-opted local press.
Seriously, Richardson's presidential run died in May 2007 after Tim Russert made him look like an empty-suited idiot for an hour on Meet the Press in part because he failed to explain what he did and why it mattered. It was so bad it ruined him as a lame duck governor because no one was afraid of him anymore. And being passed over for Commerce because he and his cronies are corrupt was kicking dirt in his face.
So that said, Huntsman's future goals would be helped tremendously if he doesn't fall on face when David Gregory has him on for the hour and asks him the same question.
Historically, you're right. But I can't rule out anyone now. There are a lot of state and local officials who've seemed to make it their life's work to travel internationally and mingle with/within the National Conference of State Legislators or Mayors for, honestly, political gains. The high profile helps. It's always going to help. But I firmly believe that it is possible. Not now. Maybe ten, twenty years from now. When you see House members who aren't hopeless like Kucinich (God bless the guy, and I'd love to support him, but I can't). It's especially likely given the preponderance of incumbency protection in Congressional redistricting versus the fact that in a twenty-year career in state government a person could bounce through every branch and still develop national and international contacts/donors. I have no doubt that if they could build a brand name like Obama did, there are lower-tier politicians I know who could make a serious run.
I like that. They can point to Reid, some of the Udalls, and a lot of state/local politicos around here. It'd be stupid not to try, especially for a party pursuing the 50 State/Big Tent strategy. People can bitch all they want, but LDS members moved in force for Prop 8 in Cali, and they are a huge, untapped (for Dems) money source.
Going from the House of Representatives to President in 10 months is unique, but (as you know) technically he did it via the Vice Presidency.
It's pretty obvious that, while Huntsman is qualified for the position, it effectively puts him in a political cryogenic chamber for however long he holds down the post. And a Politico article on the subject notes that this is not the first time Obama has cherry-picked a Republican moderate that posed an obstruction or threat to the Dems in some way, noting that Huntsman was a month away from opening a PAC:
And this is not, in fact, the last time Obama might do this if he can locate another moderate he can flip. He has made a lot of ambassador appointments so far, but there are plenty of big-name countries up for grabs yet that would prove very attractive to someone. Among the countries still available:
Australia (this one traditionally goes to political appointees and Australia likes it that way)
Austria (the last career diplomat left the post in 1969)
Belgium (this one's proven to be something of a springboard)
Canada
France
Germany (Richard Holbrooke and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. alumni here)
Holy See (Roman Catholics only)
India
Italy
Japan (this one has some star power to it- Walter Mondale, Tom Foley was a former Speaker of the House, Douglas MacArthur's nephew, etc.)
Mexico
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand (Carol Moseley Braun a recent name; also gets Samoa)
South Africa
Spain (also gets Andorra)
Sudan (though the last and only political appointee left in 1980; this is a delicate post)
Sweden
Switzerland (also gets Liechtenstein)
Syria
United Kingdom (not much star power since Charles Dawes, who left the post in 1931)
Venezuela
So he could do more of this.
I am sorry, no. Democratic Mormons are about as rare as Black or Gay Republicans, and are usually just as shunned by their peers.