Huntsman: Dropout, diplomat

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY

Jon Huntsman Jr. is a high school dropout, a Harley-riding ex-governor and a diplomat whose last boss was President Barack Obama. Now this Republican wants Obama’s job.

The unusual political r sum and sometimes centrist views makes Huntsman both a long shot to emerge with the GOP presidential nomination and a candidate to be feared by the Democrat in the White House should he break out of the pack.

At the Tacos Don Rafa food cart in downtown Salt Lake City, though, Huntsman is known simply as a regular, often dressed in a denim jacket.

“His palate can withstand more hot sauce than anyone else I’ve met,” says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, Huntsman’s first chief of staff. “I think that’s why he liked the taco carts, because of their authenticity.”

Authenticity also defines Huntsman, friends say, and helps explain his success as a moderate politician in solidly conservative Utah, where he was re-elected with 75 percent of the vote in 2008. Huntsman resigned from the governor’s mansion less than a year later when Obama tapped him to serve as his ambassador to China. He gave up the diplomatic post in Beijing after less than two years to make his run for president.

He entered the GOP presidential field Tuesday, flanked by his family and with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop.