President Barack Obama reached across the political divide Saturday and named Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a possible GOP White House contender and top John McCain supporter, to the sensitive diplomatic post of U.S. ambassador to China.
With the selection, Obama may have sidelined a potentially formidable moderate Republican from the 2012 presidential field. For Huntsman, it’s a chance to burnish his credentials and position himself as a viable hopeful — perhaps for 2016 if Obama is seen as a strong candidate for a second term in 2012.
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Fluent in Mandarin Chinese from his days as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan, the 49-year-old Huntsman is a popular two-term governor who served in both Bush administrations and was national co-chairman of Arizona Sen. McCain’s campaign against Obama last year. Huntsman has made a name for himself advocating a moderate agenda in one of the nation’s most conservative states.
With Huntsman at his side, Obama said in brief remarks in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room that he made the appointment “mindful of its extraordinary significance. Given the breadth of issues at stake in our relationship with China, this ambassadorship is as important as any in the world because the United States will best be able to deal effectively with global challenges in the 21st century by working in concert with China.