Posted on 01/31/2011 3:12:48 PM PST by OldDeckHand
Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the U.S. ambassador to China, sent a resignation letter to President Barack Obama on Monday and now is likely to explore a Republican presidential bid, a close associate told POLITICO.
In a letter hand-delivered to the White House, the former Utah governor said that he wants to return to the United States by May, the associate said. The letter thanks Obama for the opportunity to serve the country and praises the U.S. embassy staff in Beijing.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Jon who?
NOT ANOTHER RINO RUNNING FOR POTUS, PPPPLLLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No thanks.
There’s gonna be a severe traffic jam on RINO Road.
n November 2004, Huntsman was elected Governor of Utah with 57% of the vote, defeating Democratic Party nominee Scott Matheson, Jr.[6] He was re-elected in November 2008 with 77.7% of the vote, defeating Democratic Party nominee Bob Springmeyer.
During his tenure as governor, Utah was named the best managed state by the Pew Center on the States.[7]
Am not familiar with him.
Anyone have any specifics — rather than hit-and-run RINO allegations?
Name recognition alone ought to get him at least one vote. His own.
He’s a little too close to the global warming nutters.
Am I being paranoid to think this is some kind of ruse? Will Obama pretend to fear Huntsman now? Maybe Obama will even do a fake lashing out over Huntsman’s “disloyalty” in running against him. Or maybe Huntsman really wants to beat him? What do we really know about this guy, anybody?
Another RINO to split their vote.
Pew Center is very liberal isn’t it?
Related?:
Unprecedented : Clinton convenes mass meeting of US ambassadors
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2666013/posts?q=1&;page=201
I wish the current CONSERVATIVE Governor of Utah would run. Governor Gary Herbert is awesome - extremely.
I think you are on the money
Yes, here is all you need to know directly from the State Department website (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/127146.htm) with emphasis added:
Jon Huntsman was tapped by President Barack Obama to serve as United States Ambassador to China in May 2009 and his nomination was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate. Huntsman was sworn in as Ambassador immediately following his resignation as the Governor of Utah on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 11:30 a.m.
From Deseret News archives:
Most Utahns still love Gov. Huntsman
Published: Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009 12:00 a.m. MDT By Bob Bernick Jr., Deseret News
>Utahns are just crazy about Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Really. They love him.
An impressive 86 percent of Utahns approve of the job Huntsman, a Republican, is doing as governor, found a new survey conducted for the Deseret News and KSL-TV.
And if Huntsman ever wants to run for another office in this state he has a leg up on any competition — two-thirds say they would vote for him again, the new poll by Dan Jones & Associates shows.
Story graphics
Poll results Poll results And three-fourths say Huntsman is leaving Utah a better place than when he stepped into office January 2005, an interestingly high number considering the state has gone through tough budget cuts the past 12 months because of the global recession.
Huntsman leaves Utah next week to become U.S. ambassador to China.
It’s natural for citizens to feel good about an outgoing officeholder. And Utahns have traditionally really liked their governors. Those factors combine for the high rating in the latest survey.
Only 8 percent of Utahns strongly or somewhat disapprove of Huntsman as governor. Just 6 percent didn’t have an opinion, Jones found in a poll of 402 adults interviewed last week. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.
Huntsman hasn’t said what his plans are after he leaves his China post.
It was clear he was moving on to the national political stage this spring, after the devastating defeats by Republicans in the 2008 elections opened the way for new, moderate voices in the GOP.
Now, however, he will be completely out of politics as an ambassador.
Still, Jones found that 63 percent of Utahns say they would vote for him again for public office, if given the chance.
Clearly, Huntsman would have a head start in running for the U.S. Senate in 2012 or beyond, although he has consistently refused to discuss any future political ambitions.
Even though so many Utahns approve of the job Huntsman has been doing, they also think it was right that he accept President Barack Obama’s request to be an ambassador.
Eighty-seven percent strongly or somewhat approve of Huntsman’s decision to leave office just seven months into his second four-year term. A May poll for the newspaper and TV station found then that 79 percent approved of Huntsman’s decision to leave.
He clearly ran as a conservative, in 2004 and 2008.
However, Jones’ polling shows that many Utahns don’t see him that way now.
Forty-four percent of Utahns believe that Huntsman has been, in political philosophy, a moderate.
Thirty-six percent say he’s been somewhat conservative, while only five percent say he has been very conservative.
Unless he pretends to be a Tea Partier and tries to complicate a Palin or other Tea Party run. Were he to win he'd just go be a RINO like he is now. I wouldn't trust him with his 0bama background, especially if he starts out sounding real conserative.
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