Barack Obama’s decision to nominate Jon Huntsman as the US ambassador to China is classic Obama. Huntsman is the Republican governor of Utah and was widely expected to make a run for his party’s nomination in 2012. Unlike a lot of other Republican politicians Huntsman has kept his eye on the general electorate rather than just thinking about how best to stroke the base. For that reason, he would have been a more formidable opponent for Obama in 2012 than many of the other names being bandied about. But Huntsman is now out of the running for 2012 and will no longer be making his necessary arguments for reform.
Huntsman is well qualified to be US ambassador to China. He speaks Mandarin, has experience on trade issues as a deputy trade ambassador under Bush 43 and knows the region as the ambassador to Singapore under Bush 41.
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