Great analysis on Jon Huntsman’s possible future plans for taking the White House…

Over the weekend, President Obama named Utah Governor Jon Huntsman as the next Ambassador to China, a masterstroke of political strategy.

Huntsman may be the most important person you’ve never heard of. He’s a moderate Republican governor in one of the most conservative Republican states, where, until the time of his appointment, he enjoyed approval ratings above 80%. A few weeks back, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe unintentionally elevated Huntsman on the national stage by suggesting that he was one of the few Republican politicians that appeared formidable in 2012.

From all indications, Huntsman is quite the hotshot.

Huntsman is young, exceptionally smart, quick on his feet, amiable and incredibly articulate; when he speaks, he exudes reasonableness, a quality almost entirely void in the modern Republican party. He has the potential to be for the Republican Party what Obama was for the Democrats – a man capable of simultaneously exciting his base while appealing to an ever-more critical group of Independent voters. To hear him speak is to know he’s a guy an Independent would love.

Huntsman might very well have realized that Obama is, in all liklihood, a shoo-in for a second term and figured his time would be better spent building up foreign policy credentials for a 2016 run.  All he’ll need is an actual party to run as a candidate for.

“…the obstacle that Huntsman will face – a Republican primary electorate that will be as unforgiving of his Mormonism as it will be of his time in the Obama administration. And after eight years of John Boehner and Sarah Palin, of Mitch McConnell and Rush Limbaugh, Huntsman may find that there isn’t much party left to mobilize.”

As for Obama…

The president recognizes that the Republican party is quickly unfurling and that those currently leading it will be incapable, over the next few years, of righting such a wayward ship. There are few Republicans who can fill the void, reverse the hemorrhaging and rebuild the party. Huntsman, once counted among those few, is now off the stage, and on the other side of the world. By co-opting such a valuable politician, Obama has left the GOP flailing. Without a reasonable voice, the noise that has become the skeleton of a once dominant party will echo, unchecked.

In the immortal words of Lyndon Johnson,

“Better to have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.”

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