Following up on Jon Huntsman’s defense of serving President Obama as Ambassador to China for two years, when one looks at American history, one sees many examples of public figures crossing party lines to serve a President of the other party, a commitment that is in the BEST American tradition of bipartisanship and service to country.
A look back reveals many examples of such bipartisanship and putting the country ahead of party, as witness the following examples:
President Barack Obama
Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense
Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation
John McHugh, Secretary of the Army
Jim Leach, Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities
Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
President George W. Bush
Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation
President Bill Clinton
Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
William Cohen, Secretary of Defense
President George H. W. Bush
Robert Strauss, Ambassador to the Soviet Union/Russia
Richard Stone, Ambassador to Denmark
President Ronald Reagan
Mike Mansfield, Ambassador to Japan
Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Ambassador to the United Nations
William Bennett, National Endowment for the Humanities
Secretary of Education
President Jimmy Carter
James Schlesinger, Secretary of Energy
Lawrence Eagleburger, Ambassador to Yogoslavia
President Gerald Ford
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ambassador to India and to the United Nations
President Richard Nixon
Sargent Shriver, Ambassador to France
John Connally, Secretary of the Treasury
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ambassador to India
President Lyndon B. Johnson
Henry Cabot Lodge, Ambassador to South Vietnam and to West Germany
Edward Brooke, Kerner Commission on Civil Disorders
President John F. Kennedy
Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense
C. Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury
McGeorge Bundy, National Security Adviser
Henry Cabot Lodge, Ambassador to South Vietnam
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Martin Durkin, Secretary of Labor
William McChesney Martin, Jr., Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Robert B. Anderson, Secretary of the Treasury
President Harry Truman
Warren Austin, Ambassador to the United Nations
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy
Henry Stimson, Secretary of War
William Donovan, Head of the Office of Strategic Services
John G. Winant, Ambassador to Great Britain
Harlan Fiske Stone, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
President Herbert Hoover
Benjamin Cardozo, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
President Warren G. Harding
Pierce Butler, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
President Grover Cleveland
Walter Q Gresham, Secretary of State
Theodore Roosevelt, Civil Service Commissioner
President Rutherford Hayes
David Key, Postmaster General
President Ulysses S. Grant
Caleb Cushing, Ambassador to Spain
President Abraham Lincoln
Edwin M Stanton, Secretary of War
Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee
This is quite a list of distinguished Americans who served their country for a President of the other party, and Jon Huntsman, as Ambassador to China for two years, adds to that distinct list, and it should NOT disqualify him to run for President of the United States!