Most interesting of all is the Huntsman resume. He is the most accomplished of all the candidates and brings a broader scope of experience to the race.
What causes curiosity about Mr. Huntsman is that he has accumulated a remarkably full and intriguing biography in his 51 years. Mr. Huntsman became fluent in Mandarin Chinese during two years he spent in Taiwan as a young Mormon missionary. He worked in the Reagan White House. In the George H.W. Bush administration, he worked first on trade matters and then as Mr. Bush's ambassador to Singapore.
For the second Bush presidency, he was deputy trade representative. In 2004 he was elected governor of Utah, re-elected in 2008 and then most famously and curiously, accepted President Barack Obama's offer in 2009 to be the U.S. ambassador to China.
Huntsman is a competitor and want the U.S. to get back in the game, too. Especially in matters of trade.
He is preoccupied with Asia: "I've seen the rise of Asia as a business guy, I've seen it as a diplomat. I think every day how we're going to better position ourselves to compete in the next century with the likes of China and India."
A former two term Governor of Utah, he knows the value of letting states decide the big stuff. He's for block granting Medicaid back to the states.
His push for energy independence places an emphasis on natural gas. That is refreshing after all the pie in the sky renewable energy talk, as though it can happen in the next couple of years. Renewable energy is a conservative issue, true, but we also have to be realistic and use common sense in policy making. Huntsman gets that.
He may be the candidate that can reach the Reagan voters (having worked in his administration) - both Republican and Democrat as well as the Independents. He is strongly conservative on social issues and economic issues. Yet, he doesn't become arrogant in his stances and is civil in his approach. Voters are longing for a strong minded yet pleasant personality.
It will be interesting to watch as he enters early primary states and his profile is more well known with voters.
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