Jon Huntsman, Mormon Republican in exile

Only Obama could send a Republican to China.

@john f.

What exactly has become of the party? They nominated McCain, the very candidate you claim is the ideal Republican. He lost. Colin Powell, your idea of the ideal Republican endorsed and campaigned for Obama.

And, let's just dispense with the term moderate. Whenever you hear it, all you are hearing is a liberal who is too cowardly to call himself a liberal.

Liberal Republicans are simply Democrat-lite. Why vote for "lite" when you can have the real thing? Huntsman should just man up and become a Democrat.

I meant to say that Hunstman should not tailor himself to suit them but should instead be the pragmatist that he is. Huntsman is a great person and a very skilled political leader.

When the GOP gives up the Christian Taliban rule, they will start winning again. The party has been hijacked no doubt about it.

Obama is president because of the evangelicals. No doubt about it. Their petty tactics and rhetoric is equivalent to their doctrines.

A third party will not be the solution as it will only fracture the GOP. We need to squash bigot ideas and the sooner the better. We should never let the evangelicals carry their war with the Mormons into our party. Never.

@ David Bryce,

Exit polls from the 2008 primaries indicated that Romney fared the best among the least religious Republicans (excepting Mormons, of course). I think Huntsman is smart to play to Republican moderates and seculars. It also shows some forward-thinking--he seems well aware that the Republican Party can't survive if it allows itself to continue to be defined by its most conservative members.

And for what it's worth, I feel like Huntsman's move to the center is more convincing than Romney's move to the right was. This might just be my dislike of Romney speaking, but Huntsman strikes me as not only a shrewder politician, but also a better public face for Mormonism. For all his squeaky-cleanness, Mitt seems kinda phony.

I may be a crazy liberal tree-hugger, but I could see myself supporting Huntsman in 2016 (depending on who the Democratic nominee is, of course).

Ummm. I am so darn tired of folks saying Huckabee was the ONLY christian running. Mitt Romney is a Christian. Moromns are Christian. When will you let us LDS into your little 'he's a Christian, she is not' club?

Just wonde'rn.

My name,

I'm well aware of his pedigree. My understanding is that he is not especially active, and that this is well known on Capitol Hill but is not common knowledge in Utah as a whole.

Very simply, the reason why Brother Huntsman accepted the post is that he KNOWS he can NEVER become President--UNLESS he switches parties and renounces pretty much everything he had done as Governor--which I doubt will happen. Accepting an ambassador appointment from a President from the opposite political party pretty much kills any presidential aspiration in your party--unless you defect. Let's look at history. I may be wrong, but the last President of the United States who accepted a major political appointment from a President of the opposite party--without defecting--was Theodore Roosevelt--and that was only because Roosevelt had been a holdover from the previous Republican administration (Benjamin Harrison), and he and then-President Stephen Grover Cleveland were personal friends. No party base will let a presidential aspirant get away with accepting a major political appointment from a President with divergent political philosophies--and interests!

But, absent a defection, accepting such an appointment makes perfect sense if one has worldwide business interests, and wants a competitive edge in an emerging market of more than one billion people, with the second-largest GDP in the world.

Jon Huntsman knows that his political career is dead in the water. However, being an Ambassador will probably help to resurrect his BUSINESS career!

Eric, could you explain how the Republican Party's platform clashes with almost all sacred Mormon beliefs? (And, I assume, how the Democratic Party's platform synchs with Mormon beliefs?) I am not LDS (I just wandered into this discussion by following links), but I am a Republican. Back in the 1970s, I went to high school in a small town in Northern Arizona--a town that was at least 90% LDS. Most of the Mormons I knew were Democrats. In fact, Northern Arizona was such a Democratic stronghold that many Republicans registered as Democrats just so they would have someone to vote for in primary elections. Now, my old town is overwhelmingly Republican, and the majority of Mormons I know are Republican. And, ususally, they are the most conservative of Republicans. None of these people are stupid. So, if the Republican Party's platform conflicst with their sacred beliefs, how do you explain their affiliation? Were they hypnotized?