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Huntsman Takes Another Step

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China Power

Huntsman Takes Another Step

US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman takes another step toward a presidential bid with the launch of a PAC.

US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman looks to have taken a more definite step toward a run for president next year with the launch of a new political action committee (PAC) website called Horizon.

For anyone looking for details of the likely candidate or his take on specific issues, well, they’ll be disappointed. According to a spokesman for H-PAC, the site has been designed not to look like ‘your typical political organization.’

Politico quotes the spokesman as saying: ‘Neither the design nor messaging are what people have come to expect from traditional political organizations or campaigns. You won't see the same tired tropes and images that are the hallmark every other PAC website.’

The site certainly has a more whimsical feeling than other PACs (private groups organized with the aim of advancing certain issues or specific political candidates)carrying as it does a poetically formatted musing on ‘What Happened?’ to the United States:

What happened to decency? To reason?
What happened to common goals? To calm? To respect?
What happened to actual, lasting solutions to problems?

As I said previously, it won’t be easy for the apparently moderate Huntsman to find his voice in a field expected to be crowded with some stridently conservative ones, and that’s before he has to take on an incumbent president.

Still, he’ll likely have made some very useful contacts during his time in Beijing, which is a hotspot for business and political leaders alike who are passing through the region. Indeed, speaking of contacts, Huntsman was also reportedly spotted in one of the crowds that gathered at the weekend following the online calls for China’s own Jasmine revolution. He’s said to have left quickly after being identified by the person he was talking with.

The H-PAC musing ends with the thought:

Maybe someday we'll find a new generation of conservative leaders.
Well-grounded leaders of vision.
Who will bring back America.
Maybe someday.

The details of that envisioned ‘someday’ could become much clearer at the end of April, when Huntsman steps down. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see who else steps up for 2012. Please, not Donald Trump.