Huntsman Gets A New Job

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Obama appoints Republican Governor Jon Huntsman as Ambassador to China.

Joe Klein applauds the move:

This is smart and wicked clever: The President has appointed Jon Huntsman, the popular governor of Utah, as Ambassador to China. It’s smart because Huntsman knows China and is fluent in Mandarin, qualities that will be well received in China. He also has real stature, a co-chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign and a voice for sanity in the Republican Party ever since–taken together, these attributes lend “face” to the appointment, a real show of respect that the Chinese leadership will appreciate.

David Frum:

Four years of serving his country in a challenging posting seems as creditable a way as any of opting out of the political cycle. In 2016, Huntsman will be 56. He’ll have been twice elected governor of a state, twice served in important international assignments – including one of the most important of them all. His understanding of environmental issues will be sharpened by his service, ditto his already sophisticated mastery of the international economic issues that will matter more and more. Odds are that by then even conservative Republicans will have worked their way to accepting a compromise on social issues that looks more or less like the one Huntsman has evolved for himself.

Matt Y:

Huntsman, meanwhile, seems very well-qualified. He’s been US Ambassador to Singapore and US Deputy Trade Representative and he speaks Mandarin fluently. The United States isn’t always so good about picking diplomats with meaningful regional and linguistic background in the area they’re supposed to work in, and I tend to favor any break with that trend. Picking a Republican also signifies that for all the problems with the Bush-era foreign policy, the Obama administration recognizes that US-China relations stayed on an even keel and there’s bipartisan commitment to the idea of a constructive, cooperative Sino-American relationship.

Michelle Malkin has video of tea party protesters protesting Huntsman.

More when I find it.

UPDATE: Allah Pundit:

So much for the great moderate hope in 2012. What’s his angle here? Three possibilities: (a) Despite all appearances, he was never thinking of running for president. (b) He was thinking of running, but he’s enough of a patriot that he couldn’t say no when the president called on him. (c) He was aiming at 2016 all along and this is actually a brilliant move to burnish his bipartisan cred and his foreign-policy gravitas in advance, especially insofar as it makes him a player with a rising superpower like China.

Andrew Sullivan:

Don’t under-estimate Obama’s policial cunning, guys. But for those of us with some small hope of restoring decency and moderation to the right, this is a major blow. What Obama is doing is bringing all the sane conservatives  – from Crist to Huntsman to Gates – into his orbit.

UPDATE: Daniel Larison, who links to:

Andrew Sullivan linking and excerpting Al Giordano

James Fallows

Marc Ambinder

UPDATE #2: Matt Mackowiak in National Review

Robert Gehrke in Daily Beast.

UPDATE #3: Christian Brose in Foreign Policy.

UPDATE #4: Daniel Larison’s new column

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Filed under China, Foreign Affairs, Political Figures, Politics

Tags: Al Giordano, Allah Pundit, Andrew Sullivan, China, Christian Brose, Daily Beast, Daniel Larison, David Frum, Foreign Policy, James Fallows, Joe Klein, Marc Ambinder, Matt Mackowiak, Matthew Yglesias, Michelle Malkin, National Review, New Majority, Political Figures, Robert Gehrke, Swampland, Time