Why the Obama team feared Jon Huntsman

I agree with those who say Huntsman would have been a more formidable opponent to Obama than Romney was. Huntsman actually has some principles, he’s not a talking point guy, he believes in the power of reason and reality-based analysis, and as former ambassador to China he knows how to size up our place in the world… and how to speak Chinese.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview posted today by the Ripon Society. I just don’t see anything to disagree with below. I think John Boehner and his team in Congress could learn a lot from Huntsman about the national interest and how to get there. Hmm… how about Huntsman for Secretary of State?

From “A Q&A with Jon Huntsman“:

…I would argue that you don’t have much of a foreign policy or national security policy if you’re weak at home. And with our fundamentals that are in need of a fix — shoring up in other words whether it’s our economic performance, whether it’s schools, whether it’s basic infrastructure that allows us to be competitive as a Nation – all of these things need to be a part of what I consider an effort to rebuild our fundamentals in this Nation. Because that, in turn, will allow us to pursue a stronger foreign policy and national security policy.

But it is also, I think, consistent with my view that the most important thing we do internationally won’t be in the Middle East. And it’s not Iraq and it’s not Afghanistan. But it’s very much based on how well prepared we are as people in this country to meet the competitive challenges of the 21st century, which in large measure will be economic policy and education policy — in other words, preparing the next generation for their moment on the world stage. And that will play out over the Pacific Ocean for the most part, where two-thirds of our trade will reside and where the rising militaries are. The sooner we come around and deal with that reality, the better off we’re going to be. We’re saddled with problems in the Middle East. We have a carryover from our war in Iraq. We’re beginning to have a carryover from our war in Afghanistan – which, in my mind, should have been phased out a long time ago. We met our objectives earlier on and we should have recognized that and moved on.

So the sooner that we begin to rebalance our strategic mindset toward the longer-term, which is not the Middle East but is rather our nation’s economic competiveness, the better off we’re going to be in terms of preparing and then passing down this legacy to the next generation…

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