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NEW YORK--Ten days after dropping out of the GOP race, erstwhile candidate and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman has accepted his next job: chairman of the Salt Lake City-based Huntsman Cancer Foundation.
The foundation announced this morning Huntsman will succeed his father Jon M. Huntsman, who will serve as chairman emeritus.
Huntsman Sr. who founded the namesake organization said his son takes the position "with a wealth of leadership experience."
On the campaign trail, Huntsman often touted his experience "running a cancer institute" when answering questions from voters about his experience. He also regularly invoked the idea of cancer in his stump speeches.
"We have a cancer metastasizing in this country," Huntsman said hundreds of times across New Hampshire. "It's called debt."
"His unparalleled international reputation and experience will greatly enhance the life-saving work in which the Foundation is engaged," his father noted in a statement. "We join together with the entire Huntsman Cancer Institute team of more than 1,300 full-time faculty and staff in welcoming Jon to this new position."
This comes after the younger Huntsman told a voter at a GOP breakfast on Charleston's Daniel Island that his father "is not well." The elder Huntsman -- who was expected to bankroll his son's presidential bid via Our Destiny PAC -- attended his son's primary night celebration in New Hampshire and his announcement to leave the race in South Carolina.
Huntsman Jr., who dropped out on January 16, endorsed Mitt Romney after struggling to gain traction in the polls. He finished a distant third place in the New Hampshire primary after centering his entire campaign efforts in the Granite State. Unlike Romney's other major surrogates including former GOP rival Tim Pawlenty however, Huntsman is not expected to play a major role in Romney's national efforts, after recording a targeted auto-dial message to moderate voters in South Carolina shortly after dropping out.
Huntsman's new role is perhaps one of several he may assume in the coming months. Many have speculated what the future holds for the well-credentialed Huntsman, who has served in three Republican administrations and most recently as President Obama's top envoy to China.
This is also a return to the foundation for Huntsman, who served as an executive when the foundation was first launched by his father in 1995.
According to a release from the organization, the Huntsman Cancer Foundation is a cancer research center that provides patient care, education and outreach for ways to prevent and treat cancer, and "the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in the entire Intermountain West."
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The candidate (apparently mistakenly?) believed to have been supported by his rich dad...goes back to work for his rich dad...which he had done before. Huntsman continues to shock us.
Mr. Huntsman opportunistically bespake "We have a cancer metastasizing in this country...it is called debt".
Revenue: So get your party & business colleagues to pay their fair share of taxes, instead of contributing no or low revenues to the Treasury. And we will deal with the debt and deficit that the last President ran up by not paying for two wars, the high end tax breaks and the pharma sweet deal that is now on the US tab.
Tell them to kick Norquist off of the payroll. He's had a good run at breaking America financially.
We are ready and waiting for your colleagues to do that.
As for cancer: Support the environmental protections that keep arsenic and mercury out of our air and water. That would be a start. Tell your GOP colleagues in the House and Senate to stop blocking and trying to get rid of the EPA so our children and grandchildren don't have asthma. Let's stop spraying toxic stuff on our farm produce & pollutes our food. Let's stop polluting our aquifer with poison sprays. Let's stop hurting our lungs. Let's stop punishing the planet that sustains us.
Please let's ask what is it that CAUSES all these cancers that our friends, neighbors and even children experience? Where does it all come from? Let's be willing to see it when it is staring straight at us.
And best wishes with this very important work, Mr. Huntsman. And good luck with teaching your colleagues to care enough to do something about cancerous greed in our country.
nice post
thanks
backhouse,
Certainly Mr. Huntsman utilized political metaphor during his campaign, but he is no longer campaigning. I would like to think he was at the very least annoyed by the compromising statements he needed to make late in his campaign in order to boost his numbers in the polls.
He is no longer in the race. I don't know if he is setting up for a run in 2016 or not but at least at this point I find it admirable considering his credentials he is choosing to go to the Foundation.
Let's not dilute the critical importance of cancer research with partisan politics. Cancer pays no attention to rich, poor, left, or right. Cancer is caused by genetics just as much as by environmental factors. To pigeonhole cancer and other diseases to merely a result of environmental irresponsibility and governmental oversight failure is to loose sight of the big picture.
Notable cancer research and treatment centers such as SoCal's wonderful City of Hope (that saved my mom's life) are largely funded by charity from evil wealthy folk who seem to be so despised on this board by so many. Oh, by the way, people with big money in SoCal are predominantly Democrats........go figure.
Cancerous greed? To hell with it, it is just money. There will always be rich and poor. The poor will always be envious of the rich. Yadda yadda yadda. Watch someone you are close to go through a serious cancer episode and all of a sudden political metaphors become repulsive.
All the best to Jon Huntsman and the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.
I did not write out of partisanship. I wrote about cancer.
It was Mr. Huntsman who made a metaphoric connection between the US debt and cancer. Just like you, I reacted to that. And I called it what it was, "opportunistic".
Having addressed that I talked about cancer and the need to address the obvious causes, as Mr. Huntsman will be in a position to do that.
Yes we agree that cancer does not care about our political views or metaphors.
Every reasonable person is rooting for cancer research, including that done by Huntsman's group. Still, Huntsman had and continues to have influence over policymakers, even if it's just as "the sane one" from the 2012 field. He also will be looked at through a 2016 prism. Most importantly, Huntsman has thrown himself behind Romney. He should have to explain positions that undercut his foundation's goals or disavow those policies. He can't have it both ways--be known as Mr. Cancer Fighter (which we like) while not being tough on cancer-related issues if it's politically difficult.
backhouse and waldo,
We can definitely agree Mr. Huntsman sits in a good position to influence policy. My concern is policy taking precedence over research. I think Mr. Huntsman's greatest contribution to his foundation is to insulate it from politics. This I understand is somewhat a fantasy, though cancer does not carry much of the political baggage (excepting environmental cancer causes) of say AIDS or stem-cell research.
It sounds perhaps contradictory but I do not see a cancer research center acting as the activist. The research center provides the facts the activist needs, but itself should remain non-political. Politics taint science.
Waldo, I agree entirely Mr. Huntsman can not have it both ways, and to be completely effective will indeed need to be prepared to disavow policies that undercut the foundation's goals. I trust he is prepared to do that - I do not know what his political aspirations are at this point.
Sorry guys, I am not entirely happy with this post, I have not made a concise argument........
The last presidency bought by that great America hater George Soros, so whats wrong with the other team buying a presidency..????
I'm no Anti-Semite, but can smell Anti-Goyim like any bowel-aroma. Sheldon Adelson is creating anti-semitic feelings by his own actions... among them saying he regrets having served in the U.S. Military vs. the IDF. We surviving U.S. Veterans don't appreciate the treasonous attitude, nor his confidence in saying so with blatant impunity. It again raises the question, does he now deem it ok for us to walk on (HIS) sidewalks? We preach Tolerance, but don't Practice it? Is Adelson willing to quit (all U.S. interests) and move to Israel full time? Adelson's comments about being a (Good Zionist) prove that his focus is specifically Israel-1st, with the U.S. continuing to supply the Bodies, Psyches and Souls of American Children & U.S. Tax Dollars for the Zionist's Wars against their enemies, which in the end, include All (Goyim) no? After all, who wrote the Talmud? Or does merely reading respected Judaic texts now constitute anti-semitism? Does Adelson's being a (good) Zionist observe what the Torah states with regard to gambling and it's victims? Taking major economic advantage of a severe addiction has provided the primary source of Sheldon Adelson's vast fortune. Way To Go Sheldon, for proving that wealth is still all that counts, not truth or character! But wait, the majority of the addicted victims are just (Goyim), so who cares, right? Well, you won't find any Zionists that care buckets about the very useful, if non-human-refuse Goyim. Want a good laugh?.. Newt Gingrich is just about as Goyah as they come in the eyes of even a wannabe non-Observant Jew, let alone a Zionist. D'ya wonder if Gingrich realizes that? Anyway, that's the truth, which doesn't hold water in the Newt camp these days. Everyone wants Peace in Israel+Palestine+Everywhere, but many realize we're all being played, even Sub-Human Goyah barely capable of heating up leftover non-kosher spaghettios for lunch, who would nonetheless, still find eating it without spillage both a mental & physical challenge. Let's recommend they wear Bibs. :) Woof.