Huntsman isthe best choice

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor and ambassador to Singapore under George H.W. Bush and to China under Barack Obama, hasn’t made much of a splash in New Hampshire’s Republican primary and that’s too bad.

He is the best candidate for the GOP nomination for president. He comes to the race with better credentials than most of the candidates and less baggage – moral and political – than some. But a lack of funding has kept him from advertising, so most of what anyone knows about him they have learned from the many town-meeting style events he has held around the state, including one last month in Milford.

Here are some facts about him culled from the Web:

Huntsman worked as a White House staff assistant for Ronald Reagan, and he was appointed by George H.W. Bush as the deputy assistant secretary of commerce and later as United States ambassador to Singapore from 1992–1993. Huntsman served as deputy United States trade representative under George W. Bush, launching global trade negotiations in Doha, Qatar, in 2001 and guiding the accession of China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization.

Huntsman has also served as CEO of his family’s Huntsman Corporation and was elected governor of Utah in April, 2004 and won re-election in 2008 with nearly 78 percent of the vote. While governor, he also served as chairman of the Western Governors Association.

Mitt Romney can match some of that, but not much. Newt Gingrich? A little, but not much. The rest of the field? Forget about it.

So far, the worst thing anyone has said about Huntsman (and it comes from the Union Leader which is backing Gingrich) is that some of his positions are too moderate. Ouch.

Well, we don’t agree with all of his positions but for the most part, Huntsman’s stands are rational, reasonable, intelligent, and designed to take the nation forward without demonizing those who disagree with him. Here are some of those positions:

• He supports a balanced budget amendment. (We don’t agree; sometimes nations need to act quickly and such an amendment, unless really carefully worded, would preclude that.)

• On tax reform: get rid of all loopholes, all deductions, all subsidies. Use that to lower rates across the board. (Sounds reasonable, unless you’re rich.)

• Eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends to lower the cost of capital and encourage investment in the economy. (Sounds a little too much like the discredited “trickle down” theory of economics, but it could help the middle class, too.)

• He wants to repeal President Obama’s health care law. While he was Utah’s governor, according to his Web site, he “spearheaded and passed comprehensive, market-based health care reform. While other states relied on government control and individual mandates, (he) delivered reforms that give consumers freedom to choose and negotiate their own coverage in a competitive marketplace.” How is it working? This was blogged in June by Utah state Rep. David Clark, who sponsored the Utah law: “Utah has created a defined-contribution health care marketplace that increases consumer information and choice, and offers Utah employers cost-effective solutions for providing health insurance to their employees through the use of the Utah Health Care Exchange. The number of employers enrolling in the Exchange is growing, and its defined-contribution approach is reaching people who were previously uninsured. Utah’s reform was accomplished without imposing government mandates on Utah’s citizens.” (Of course, as sponsor, he would say that, but it still seems better than anything any other candidate has put out there, unless you count Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan.)

• On abortion, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune: “Already on record as an abortion foe, the former Utah governor favors amending the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade and outlaw abortion.” (This is a terrible idea and clearly should be rejected. That said, which Republican candidate, other than Ron Paul who is battling charges of racism, has a different stance?)

Clearly we have some differences with Huntsman, particularly in the area of constitutional amendments, which are usually a way of saying, “I don’t know what else to do.” One wonders what he and others would do if someone proposed a constitutional amendment to repeal the Second Amendment. Who could think over the screaming?

But given the Republican field in New Hampshire, we think Huntsman is the best choice. He has national and international experience, he understands, as much as anyone can, China, a huge economic rival for the U.S., and he does seem to want people to have health care.

And we all know that tax reform is absolutely necessary.

So, yes, Huntsman is The Cabinet’s choice in the Jan. 10 Republican Primary.