Obama lampshaded this at the State of the Union when praising Huntsman’s work. Honestly, I think it would fly at least as well as Bill Clinton’s selecton of William Cohen for Defense.
Can you explain this a bit? I couldn’t find it in the speech. I saw that Obama mentioned that he was bringing more trade cases against China than Bush did, but I don’t know if that counts as credit for Huntsman (whose name was not mentioned).
Sorry–crossed wires. The comments I was thinking of were in a speech at the Gridiron cluba couple of months after the 2011 SotU. I remembered Huntsman in the audience, and couldn’t think of a reason for him to have attended any Obama events outside of the SotU. Ignorance fought.
How surprising is that? I mean, the place where he was working is filled with spies!
Maybe one of them loved him.
Nobody Does It Better…
Makes me feel safe from the rest…
Obama appointed Hilary who ran against him in the primary, no?
Talk of a Huntsman cabinet position may be surprising, but not totally inconceivable.
Also, Huntsman recently defended the President on Benghazi while criticizing Romney for politicizing it (of course, he still endorsed Romney). Huntsman is a person non grata to the GOP, but voters may not see that so it may look bipartisan and he’s certainly qualified.
At the same time, a Huntsman appointment may really piss off the Dem base. My money is on Kerry.
Totally different. They’re both Democrats and she supported him after he won the nomination. Huntsman worked for Obama and then quit to try to beat him. A few Huntsman quotes from the campaign:
“President Obama’s policies have weakened America and thus have diminished America’s presence on the world stage. We must correct our course.”
[I’m pretty sure that by itself should illustrate that Obama is not going to make him Secretary of State.]
“After three years of bigger government, higher taxes and more spending, America desperately needs a return to conservative principles: limited government, lower taxes and balanced budgets. America is more divided than ever, and for our nation to move forward together with new leadership and unite, the Republican Party must first unite.”
“The American people have lost trust, first and foremost, in the president. A president who, rather than focusing like a laser on fixing our economic core, wasted an entire year jamming through a health care plan the American people didn’t ask for and can’t afford. A president who brazenly ignored the bold and creative proposals put forth by his own bipartisan deficit commission – Simpson-Bowles – whose failure to deal honestly with our debt caused the first-ever downgrade in our nation’s credit rating. A president who has employed the same crony politics he once decried; who has used public dollars to pay off campaign contributors like Solyndra; and who has been willing, through his National Labor Relations Board, to sacrifice American jobs to appease union allies.”
Jon Huntsman is many Democrats favorite Republican. Can’t remember who here suggested it, that Huntsman could only win a Republican primary written by Aaron Sorkin.
I can see that working. For Rice at least, as they’ll be too busy slamming Kerry with all that Swift Boat bullshit (“I was in Vietnam during the same time period as John Kerry and I hope you don’t notice that’s what ‘served with’ actually means.”)
Kerry would be better for Defense than Secretary of State, I suppose. I mean, seriously. John Kerry? For SECRETARY OF STATE? Our “Chief Diplomat”? The man has as much charisma as a log. The Daily Show once rat a segment advertising a non-existent CD entitled “John Kerry Ruins Your Favorite Jokes.” And I say this as one of the people he REPRESENTS in Massachusetts.
I appreciate the man’s voting record (mostly. He’s let me down a couple of times on key issues and I have viewed him with some aggravation ever since) but he’s not a good choice for SoS.
I spent part of the day listening to right wing hate radio, and they’re already gearing up to attack Rice. Also, John McCain and Lindsey Graham made very public statements calling Rice incompetent.
The artificiality of all of this is staggering. The most they have – the absolute most they have! – is the timeline on when people called the attacks “Terrorist” attacks. This is one of the most Orwellian things ever.
(It’s right up there with opposing gay marriage because we can’t permit people to change the meanings of words in our language.)
Yea, a Rice confirmation hearing is looking increasingly like a fight Obama wants to have. The GOP conspiracy-mongering on Benghazi is so over-the-top that it seems more likely to hurt their already damaged foreign policy rep then hurt Obama.
Obama made it very clear today that if he decides he wants Rice, he’s nominating Rice. He’s not going to scare off this one, and good for him. The primary attack on Rice is itself based on McCain’s misunderstanding or lying about her initial statements about Benghazi. She never called it a spontaneous protest. That’s something McCain came up with.
If he picks Erskine Bowles for Treasury, I’ll jam forks in my eyes. But if he’s going to nominate Rice for State, then I have to think he’s in F-you mode, in which case he may be preparing to ignore all the commentators advising him against it. Which wouldn’t be the first time, his admin is rotten with Rubinites.
And I agree that Obama shouldn’t risk losing Kerry’s seat in the Senate. He’s already done this once with Kathleen Sebelius. She was well-positioned for a Senate run in 2010, having served two terms as governor of Kansas, but she declined in favor of a cabinet post.
Obama is screwed on Secretary of State unless he can get Bill Clinton to do the job. Hillary was a brilliant choice initially, but anyone likely to replace her is a step down. Heads of state aren’t interested in meeting John Kerry, or pretty much anyone else. His best bet is to have Hillary stay on for around six months with a known interim replacement in line for six months after that. That interim secretary should be lowering expectations for the next person to step in.
As for the rest of his cabinet, they’re nothing special. They may be competent, but they have no star power. Maybe he can put Oprah in one of the spots.
Hey, he could get Schwarzenegger to take up his position as Secretary of Fitness again; I hear he’s looking for work.
If he really wants to annoy the Republicans, he should nominate former Ambassador Joe Wilson (the guy who is married to Valerie Plame). He had a long and distinguished career in diplomacy, working for both Republicans and Democrats, and until the shitbags in the second Bush administration decided to fuck him and his family over for telling the truth, he was dedicated to non-partisan service to his country.
From his Wikipedia article:
Remember, this is Joe “Fuck you, Saddam” Wilson, not Joe “You Lie” Wilson. He would have more actual diplomatic experience than anyone who has done the job in decades, possibly ever. He is tough, principled and charismatic. And he has a deep understanding of Africa, both it’s problems and potential.
Republican heads assploding would just be the whipped cream and cherry on top.