When it comes to the cutthroat game of politics, President Obama may well be the smartest political operative to occupy the Oval Office since Richard Nixon. Obama may even be smarter than the man who salvaged his career at one point by talking about his dog Checkers.
Obama came of age on the streets of Chicago, where politics is a bare-knuckles blood sport. He was chided about being a “community organizer” but that job gave him his best experience in campaigning, connecting with people, and public speaking. It honed his political instincts, which are very, very impressive. He is a masterful speaker (at least when teleprompted) and understands how to cloak an unquestionably leftist agenda in common-sense sounding rhetoric that lures people into a false hope in government solutions.
Obama follows the old adage of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. He tapped Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State, a position which virtually guarantees she will never again be a presidential contender. He intervened with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Sen. Joe Lieberman’s behalf to ensure he would retain seniority on his committees. Obama tapped Rep. Ray LaHood for Secretary of Transportation at a time LaHood was seen as a major player in Republican politics in Illinois.
His latest stroke of brilliance his is appointment of Gov. Jon Huntsman as Ambassador to China. Huntsman had begun to make noises about the possibility of running for President in 2012. He is one of the most popular governors in the nation. He was an early supporter of John McCain’s run for President (a major blow to fellow LDS member, Mitt Romney) and McCain could have easily turned his entire operation over to Huntsman, giving him instant national infrastructure reach. Huntsman also has piles and piles of money (by some measures more than Romney) to fund a serious operation for a presidential run.
All that came to a screeching halt when Obama tapped Huntsman for Ambassador to China. Yes, the argument can be made that Huntsman would have been ill-suited for the Republican primary process, but so was McCain, and he ended up the nominee. Huntsman would have put enormous counter-pressure on Romney because he would be better funded, “more” LDS (Huntsman is from Utah, not Massachusetts; he has not flip-flopped fundamental Republican positions), and none of the disadvantages of being a child of politics (his father has never admitted being “brainwashed” by the U.S. military).
Huntsman has not toed all the articles of faith of the Republican Party – while he has generally governed from a conservative posture, he has soft edges on education funding, health care, and supporting the idea of civil unions for gay couples.
However, that is part of why Obama tapped him. Obama and his advisors have bought into the idea that if the Republican Party is going to survive and regain power that it needs to promote “moderate” leaders. It is why the Democrat talking point has been to claim that Rush Limbaugh is the head of the party. It is their calculation that a principled, conservative party is a dying breed. In Huntsman, Obama and his political advisors saw a real threat, a “big tent” Republican.
So Obama did what any good street-fighting Chicago pol would do — he co-opted his potential rival.
Some people may ask why in the world Huntsman would walk away from being Governor to take an Ambassadorship. First, he’s self term limited and he has been a very successful Governor.
More importantly, I would guess that for Huntsman it was driven by his faith. He served a church mission in Taiwan and speaks Mandarin. He is a strong believer in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and as such, believes all the earth needs to hear about Jesus Christ. As Ambassador to a nation that has quashed religious expression, Huntsman will be a key player in advancing religious freedom in China.
Without question, Huntsman is infinitely qualified for the position, as this excerpt from a Politico.com story demonstrates:
Huntsman, 49, served a Mormon mission in Taiwan. The governor and his wife, Mary Kaye, adopted a daughter, Gracie Mei, from China in 1999. In 2006, he led a trade mission to China “because of their prominence on the world stage and the way in which they are growing so rapidly,” he told the Deseret Morning News of Salt Lake City.
He served as a deputy assistant secretary of the Commerce Department’s Trade Development Bureau under former President George H.W. Bush, who appointed him as Singapore ambassador in June 1992. Huntsman was identified in news reports at the time as a political donor, bundling contributions from different people for Bush’s reelection.
Huntsman also took a role in President George W. Bush’s administration, erving as Deputy U.S. Trade Ambassador from 2001 to 2003.
In short, Obama did himself a favor by appointing Huntsman as Ambassador to China. He took a potential opponent out of the mix, and got one of the most qualified people in the nation as Ambassador to China.
