Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Jon Huntsman Joins Brookings Institution

Former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman has joined the Brookings Institution today as a Distinguished Fellow.  Huntsman is a former Governor of Utah and former Ambassador to China.

Here is what Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post has to say about the Huntsman's decision to go to Brookings:
In some sense this is appropriate. He’s too pompous and boring to take his anti-Republican condescension to MSNBC. After a stint in the Obama administration and his sniping at conservatives for being anti- science, he’s not welcome in Republican circles.
But in another sense it’s a peculiar choice. Brookings features some of the more highly regarded national security gurus and anti-isolationists from the center of the political spectrum including Ken Pollack, Robert Kagan and Ben Wittes. How is Huntsman, who has taken a knee-jerk anti-internationalist position more akin to the left-wing Center for American Progress, going to fit in? Meanwhile on economics he’s ditched his preference for cap-and-trade and sounds like the Cato crowd (flat tax, no deductions).
Truth be told, hardly anyone is all that interested in hearing from Huntsman. On the other hand, if he swapped parties and ran as a Democrat, he might regain some currency. Come to think of it, if that strategy is to work, there is no better place to start than Brookings.
Brookings scholars certainly cheered him on during his recent presidential bid.

Think tanks are nothing new to Huntsman.  He was the Founding Director of the Pacific Council on International Policy, which was founded in 1995 in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  He has also served on boards such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Pacific Forum, Asia Society in New York, National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), and the Brookings Institution's Asia Policy Board.

In more Huntsman family news, his daughter, Abby Huntsman just signed on with Huffington Post to host a show on HuffPost Live.