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During two days of talks about human rights with China last week, the US raised examples of problems on its own soil and cited Arizona's controversial new immigration law as an example of "racial discrimination." “We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session and as a troubling trend in our society, and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination. And these are issues very much being debated in our own society,” Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner, who led the US...

First Holder, now this. Second verse, same as the first: It would take 20 minutes to read through the statute and less than two to read the key provisions that have raised concerns about racial profiling. But if you read it then you’re responsible for what you say about it, and we can’t have that with the midterms less than six months away. So here’s the deputy border-enforcer-in-chief admitting that she hasn’t found the time yet to review “in detail” an immigration law that’s been the talk of the country politically for about a month now. Consider this a sequel...

The Mormon Media Observer looks back at the year filled with LDS newsmakers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tops the list, based on a newsmaker's frequency in the news as well as the significance of their stories. 1. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada The Senate Majority Leader led the battle to push through health reform in the Senate. News coverage of Reid made a household name and the divisive debate made him out to be both villain and saint. He may still face a tough battle in his home state of Nevada to save his seat. On Christmas The New...

As ambassador to China, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. likely will go out of his way to avoid being seen as promoting the LDS Church despite a Utah lawmaker's supposition to the contrary, a BYU professor said Monday. Huntsman will "be careful and cautious in anything he says about the church or to further the church's presence in China," said Matthew Christensen, who teaches Chinese at Brigham Young University. Christensen's comments came after state Rep. Craig Frank, R-Cedar Hills, on his blog underthedome.org, suggested Huntsman could use his new position to share his faith with millions of Chinese. Mormons believe they...

It seems like the announcement came out of nowhere this weekend: [...] The reaction by many shocked political junkies was, “What?” The reaction by most others was, “Who?” Huntsman had very little name recognition before the president’s announcement, but his name had surfaced in various places in the past few weeks. [...] Huntsman has close ties to both John McCain and Mitt Romney. The Utah governor signed on to McCain’s presidential campaign very early on - in July of 2006 - and became a co-chairman of McCain’s political action committee, helping coordinate politics and policy for the Arizona senator in...

From the man who brought you John McCain. And before you ask, yes, he was indeed one of the Republican “insiders” who contributed to that National Journal poll declaring her future dead in the water. The Republican strategist who helped Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman prepare for a possible presidential run says the Republican party is in for a devastating defeat if its guiding lights are Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. “If it’s 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we’re headed for a blowout,” says strategist John Weaver, who advised Huntsman and...

Not only did he manage two losing McCain campaigns, his last GOP boss was Jon Huntsman -- newest member of the Obama administration.

Utah's (and my) RINO Governor accepted the nomination to serve as ambassador to China, under President Obama. This seems to put to rest his alleged bid at the 2012 Presidency. The only question is, why? From Politico:The move is freighted with political intrigue. Huntsman, who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, quickly emerged after November as one of the leading moderate GOP voices… Huntsman, who met with Obama’s transition team to discuss energy policy, was in Washington on Friday night, ahead of a planned Saturday announcement by the White House, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Several Utah news organizations said the...

The Republican strategist who helped Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman prepare for a possible presidential run says the Republican party is in for a devastating defeat if its guiding lights are Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. "If it's 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we're headed for a blowout," says strategist John Weaver, who advised Huntsman and was for years a close adviser to Sen. John McCain. "That's just the truth." Huntsman, a favorite of GOP moderates, left the Republican presidential race last week after accepting President Obama's offer to become U.S....

This is a very clever move by President Barack Obama. He's chosen Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah as his ambassador to China. A Republican, former ambassador to Singapore and fluent Mandarin speaker, Huntsman has recently staked out centrist stances on gay rights, climate change and stimulus spending. He'd made clear his contempt for the Republican congressional leadership, saying: "I have not met them. I don't listen or read whatever it is they say because it is inconsequential - completely." That made him the best-placed moderate Republican to challenge for the 2012 presidential nomination. By any analysis, at this stage a...

 

NEW YORK - A source close to Utah's Gov. Jon Huntsman says President Barack Obama plans to name the Republican governor as ambassador to China. The source says Huntsman has accepted the appointment. An announcement was expected at the White House Saturday morning.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Governor Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will resign and accept an appointment as ambassador to China, ABC 4 has confirmed. A press conference has been called for Saturday morning at the White House to annouce the appointment.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Republicans seeking a path out of the political wilderness are eyeing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Mormon who's nudged the conservative stronghold in a more moderate direction on the environment and gay rights and drawn praise from President Barack Obama's campaign manager. The popular, 49-year-old Huntsman has spoken publicly of the need to open the Republican Party to a wider range of viewpoints if it is to attract younger voters. He's won praise from party elders, including 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, who called the governor a potentially promising contender in 2012. Huntsman has...

SALT LAKE CITY - (ABC 4 News) - There is one republican presidential candidate that President Barack Obama's campaign manager fears the most in 2012...and his name is Jon Huntsman Jr. This week for Governor Huntsman, good things are coming in threes. Not just the fear from the Obama campaign, but also an important phone call and a weekend spent testing the waters in a key primary state.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman said Thursday that Utah's constitutional ban on gay marriage is unclear on the issue of civil unions between gay couples, and that a court will probably have to decide if the unions are allowed here. "I don't know that that bans it specifically," Huntsman said. "I think that ultimately could be a court case and that might be adjudicated in court over time if it ever gets to that level. But that wasn't clear." The Republican governor says that while he supports traditional marriage, he also supports same-sex civil unions. "To my...

In GOP base, a 'rebellion brewing' By: Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin April 26, 2009 07:03 AM EST A quick tour through the week’s headlines suggests the Republican Party is beginning to come to terms with the last election and that consensus is emerging among GOP elites that the party needs to move away from discordant social issues. There was Sen. John McCain's daughter and his campaign manager who last week demanded that their fellow Republicans embrace same-sex marriage. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman – the most devoted modernizer among the party's 2012 hopefuls – won approving words from New York...

Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said we live on a cooling planet. The Republican National Committee Chairman, Michael Steele, has weighed in on climate change. In a March 6 radio appearance that is only now percolating ... We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there, the supposed warming, and I am using my finger quotation marks here, is part of the cooling process. Greenland, which is now covered in ice, it was once called Greenland for a reason, right? Iceland, which is now green. Oh I love this. Like we know...

There was at least one 2012 presidential contender missing from the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this weekend, traditionally a testing ground for any Republican even remotely considering a White House bid. That could be in part because Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. risked getting booed off the stage for some of his views. -SNIPAfter running for governor in 2004 as a supporter of a ballot measure that year that not only banned gay marriage but also civil unions, Huntsman made national news earlier this month by saying that he had changed his mind on civil unions. Largely under...

The Republican governor of Utah on Monday said his party is blighted by leaders in Congress whose lack of new ideas renders them so "inconsequential" that he doesn't even bother to talk to them. "I don't even know the congressional leadership," Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, shrugging off questions about top congressional Republicans, including House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "I have not met them. I don't listen or read whatever it is they say because it is inconsequential - completely." In a...