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Subscribe to RSSAggressive campaign rhetoric against China will set the United States back no matter who the next American president is, former U.S. ambassador to China and 2012 presidential candidate Jon Huntsman said.
“It doesn't help the relationship,” Huntsman, speaking with NBC News after a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution, said when asked about the Obama and Romney campaigns’ sparring over who’s tougher on China.
The Washington Post's Dan Balz explains what's at stake in the first presidential debate and talks about winning strategies.
“Let’s just say it sets us back by putting us behind in terms of the makeup work that must be done once you’re in office. So instead of being able to start a dialogue on Day One that really begins to address problem-solving and relationship-building, you’re, in a sense, in a penalty box.”
He added that such a delay “wastes valuable time” that should be spent building what is “probably the most complicated relationship in the world.”
When asked what a President Mitt Romney or Barack Obama could do to mend relations once in office, Huntsman said their posture towards China will have to change “because it becomes real. It’s no longer political rhetoric; it’s the reality of managing a very complicated relationship.” He declined, however, to “speculate” on what sorts of policies either would pursue after the election.
As to whether he has consulted on China with his former presidential rival, whom he endorsed after dropping out of the race in January, Huntsman said “I’m not consulting with anybody, other than my family.”
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“I’m not consulting with anybody, other than my family.”
And even they can't quite remember who he is...
This just shows Romney is naive and has little or no experience in foreign affairs ..You need to have more experience then just ordering Chinese take out !
But, but, Huntsman our President Obama imposed trade sanctions against China in an effort to protect American workers
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/oct/01/barack-obama/ad-says-obama-defied-china-save-tire-making-jobs-h/
Myth Romney didn't. In fact, Romney Invested in a Sweat Shop in China.
The release said that, "Mitt Romney, while CEO of Bain Capital, knowingly invested in a brutal Chinese sweatshop which we believe he was describing in detail at the same Boca Raton fundraising event where he made his 47-percent comments. A new report by the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights, documents the workers' low pay at the time Romney was substantially invested in the company ($23 million) and the current abysmal conditions and pay at the appliance factory owned by Global-Tech."
http://usahitman.com/mitt-romney-invested-in-a-sweat-shop-in-china/
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This is the sociopathic, vulture, capitalist the tidy righties want. Sick, Sick!!!
4 more 4 44
Obama/Biden 2012
Queen Ann says she'd be worried about Willards "mental well-being".....
For me, that statement is very scary.....afterall, she knows!
How much foreign experience did Obama have before being elected?
I thought you were refering to Queen Michelle?
Maybe no more than Mitt. On the other hand, Obama didn't invest in China sweatshops and then brag to his monied friends about how much money he was making and how the Chinese workers were only getting $2/day and living in overcrowded conditions that would be illegal in this country.
Nope, a teeny bit of difference between them.
Here he goes again: Now Romney says he will end President Obama's DREAM Directive:
Mitt Romney tried to moderate his immigration positions on Monday before tonight’s debate in Colorado when he said he would not take away the temporary visas from undocumented immigrants who benefit from Obama’s deferred action policy. “I’m not going to take something that they’ve purchased,” he told The Denver Post. He added that before those two-year visas expire, “we will have the full immigration reform plan that I’ve proposed,” although he gave no details about his immigration plan.
Today, his campaign confirmed to the New York Times that Romney would end the program to grant deportation deferrals to young undocumented immigrants who qualify:
Romney campaign confirms to NYT they will halt deferred deportations for undoc immigrants when he takes office, if elected
Romney campaign: he will honor deportation deferrals granted but halt the program when he takes office, seek "permanent" fix
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/10/03/951521/romney-campaign-confirms-he-would-end-obamas-dream-directive/
I always thought this was one of the best things President Obama did.
JERSY GIRL - at least TRY to keep up. Ann Romney stated this past week that she is worried about the toll the stress is taking on Mitt's mental health. LOL At least Ann speaks the truth - Mitt is not mentally fit to be President. Just imagine the stress actually BEING President has associated with it!
John Huntsman was the only moderate Republican who hasn't gone over the far right cliff - so clearly he couldn't run as a President. Watch for him to leave the party and become an Independent if the party doesn't grow a spine and kick the radical right to the curb.
Would love to see President Obama appoint Huntsman as an ambassador - once again - during his 2nd term as President.
Obama/Biden 2012
He needs time to figure out/manipulate the propram so that he can make a few more million!
@Jersey......so you agree that Willard has some sort of mental defect!
Jersey Girl, true, President Obama had little foreign policy experience but that is also true of nearly every president. The difference is that Candidate Obama showed far more intelligence and ability, far more discretion and far more leadership skills that Candidate Romney ever has. Romney went to London and insulted the entire British nation; he went to Israel and insulted the Palestinians. Romney has repeatedly made stupid comments about foreign powers and shown no ability to grasp when it is best to just shut up. Illinois Senator Barack Obama showed wisdom and sound judgement, during the lead up to the Iraq war, when he said he wasn't against all wars, just against dumb ones. It didn't take us long to figure out Iraq was a dumb war.
The wise man must be wise before, not after. Epicharmus. Candidate Obama showed he was wise before; Romney shows no such characteristic.
I believe that Ann was speaking about the stress level involved with being a president...
Debates finally on tonight, can't wait to see some real "issues"!!
As for foreign policy, Obama spent many years living abroad... hence his apologetic stance with most countries...
it cant be as easy as Obama has had it
sirie - I stand corrected. You're right.
CA - you didn't actually post that Obama has had it easy? Let's see the Republicans in Congress vowing to make him a one-term President and blocking EVERYTHING he has proposed to help the country? That post alone makes you the most dishonest person on these sites.
Obama/Biden 2012
I think Jon Huntsman has realized that as long as the Republican Party is ruled by the 15% who make up the evangelicals and the Tea Party fanatics, there is no room for moderates in the GOP.
That is unfortunate, our country has lost the opportunity to have another great statesman in the White House.
Maybe if all the Tea Nuts are thrown out (including Bachman and Ryan) then the House can return to Democratic control and the GOP will purge the extremists from their ranks.
Big problem with this line of thinking... Obama can't even apply those skills on a domestic level!! How is it that you think he can show discretion and leadership now, when he has outright given up on working with this congress?
Obama gets a FAIL for domestic diplomacy.
Romney/Ryan 2012 - A New Hope
Huntsman, you ought to know you sell-out piece of crap. You're too close to the Red Chinese and that makes you suspect to where your loyalties lie. You put profit before you country. How do you say "Sell-Out" in Chinese?
Jody, Iowa:
One major problem with your statement: B H Obama won his USA Senate seat from Illinois in November 2004 and was sworn in in January 2005. The USA invaded Iraq in March 2003 - almost two (2) full years before B H Obama became an USA Senator.
I have been conducting business in mainland China for over 20 years. Plus, I own several companies there. I totally disagree with Jon Huntsman in regards to China and the USA. China needs the USA more that the USA needs China.
Referring to Obama as the "President" just seems odd after last night.
Al; Gore Blames the altitude for Obamas poor performance at the 2012 presidential debate last night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtkw8stAlrM&feature=share
LOL !
Nothing Romney says helps anyone.
NYTimes, h/t-The Obama Diary:
It was almost exactly four years ago that Mitt Romney watched up close as John McCain agonized over how he should respond to America’s spiraling financial crisis. What McCain ultimately chose to do, six weeks before the election, was to suspend his campaign and return to Washington to meet with President Bush and Congressional leaders. But that strategic gamble — which now takes its place in the annals of political misfires — came as a result of a somber meeting earlier that day with his economic team at a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The attendees included several of the candidate’s big donors in the finance industry, a few political advisers and Romney.
“It was an unrelentingly bleak discussion, with the financial guys talking about the world as we know it ending,” recalls Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was McCain’s senior economic adviser at the time. Another McCain senior staff member, who, like many people I spoke with, would speak only under the condition of anonymity, told me: “At the time, there wasn’t a person on the political team who understood what a credit-default swap was or toxic mortgages or subprime bundling. At one point I asked, ‘What do you mean by economic collapse?’ And one of them answered, ‘It means you won’t be able to get a 20-dollar bill out of an A.T.M.’ Right after the meeting I called my wife and said, ‘Get $30,000 in cash out of the bank today.’ It was terrifying and surreal.”
Romney had been an informal adviser, fund-raiser and campaign surrogate for McCain since dropping out of the G.O.P. race seven months earlier. Well before the meltdown of the markets that summer, the former Massachusetts governor and Bain Capital C.E.O. had emphasized his vast experience in the private sector. As he told one campaign audience in Sarasota, Fla., in January 2008: “I will not need briefings on how the economy works. I know how it works. I’ve been there.”
That day in the Hilton conference room, however, Romney did not distinguish himself as McCain struggled to decide what course he should recommend in Washington. Holtz-Eakin recalls “nothing specifically” that Romney had to offer. The other McCain senior staff member is more emphatic: “The reality is he didn’t take command. He wasn’t a Marshall-type figure who conveyed an understanding of both business and politics. But the truth is, no one else had any clue what to do, either.” Then he added, “There wasn’t a single person in the room, including Romney, who had any specific policy recommendation.”
The guy is just plain weird.
I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love." –
Mitt Romney (January 2012)
"I like those fancy raincoats you bought. Really sprung for the big bucks." —Mitt Romney to a group of NASCAR fans wearing plastic ponchos at the Daytona 500 (February 2012)
We have a president, who I think is a nice guy, but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps." —Mitt Romney, who has two Harvard degrees (April 5, 2012)
I get speaker's fees from time to time, but not very much." —Mitt Romney, who earned $374,000 in speaking fees in one year according to according to his personal financial disclosure (January 2012)
"I'm not familiar precisely with what I said, but I'll stand by what I said, whatever it was." —Mitt Romney (May 17, 2012)
"I'm running for office for Pete's sake, we can't have illegals" –Mitt Romney, recalling his reaction when he learned that there were illegal aliens working the ground on his property, employed by a firm that he subsequently fired (October 2011)
"I'm not sure about these cookies. They don't look like you made them. No, no. They came from the local 7/11 bakery, or whatever." —Mitt Romney, visiting a local bakery while campaigning in Pittsburgh, PA, April 17, 2012 (The owner of the baker later told MSNBC he was offended by Romney's remarks.)
"I love this state. The trees are the right height." —Mitt Romney, campaigning in Michigan (February 2012)
Memo to David Axelrod and David Plouffe:
One piece of advice to President Obama. Tell him:
NO MORE MR. NICE GUY when it comes to Romney.
Respectful, yes. But that's it.
Romney is attempting to undo all the good the Obama Administration has done under very very bleak circumstances, with zero help from Romney or any Republican.
And Romney is one of the guys who signed a pledge to Grover Norquist and slammed the 47% of us who support our President and our country. We are hard workers, not moochers.
And we don't give a damn about Norquist. Yet to Romney, hecame priority #1.
President Obama took an OATH to the US Constitution and to we the people.
"Government is the only thing we all belong to."
"The private sector is doing fine"..........but, but "the middle class is buried"
Pat Boston MA.
Memo to David Axelrod and David Plouffe:
I hope our President will zap MYTH tonight by coming right out and asks MYTH how does having tax shelters in off shore accounts contribute to the America economy?
Maybe Jim Lehner will. Then our President can zap MYTH again by asking MYTH did he miss the deadline for the IRS amnesty program for tax evaders
Dark Secret in Romney's Missing Tax Files: "Amnesty" from Prison for Top-1% Tax Cheats?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/23/1135424/-Dark-Secret-in-Romney-s-Missing-Tax-Files-Amnesty-from-Prison-for-Top-1-Tax-Cheats
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MYTH Romney is the secretive, possible, felon you tidy righties want to run our country. Sick!!!
4 more 4 44
Obama/Biden 2012
Pat: Obama comes from Chicago. Remember the guy who was running for the Illinois State House that was supposed to be a friend of Obama's? Obama came up with a bunch of crap and the guy had to resign. Obama does politics the Chicago way and that is not a GOOD way.
JERSY GIRL - what man? Since I live in Chicago and have no clue what you're talking about please cite specifics - if you can.
Obama/Biden 2012
JERSY GIRL - If you're talking about Jack Ryan - they were not friends and were actually opponents for the Illinois senate. Ryan's ex-wife outed him for perverse acts during their married life and that pretty much killed his campaign. It was the WIFE who outed him - not Obama.
smitty1118 - I find it so interesting you guys take no blame for the abhorent policies of George Bush - who got us into this mess - then the Republicans in Congress who made sure we stayed in the same mess. But then, you're a Republican so I can see where the truth is beyond your grasp!
Obama/Biden 2012
Pat Boston MA.:
That should be: Oath to uphold the USA Constitution. However, he keeps breaking that oath. His use of Executive Orders has him in direct violation of the USA Constitution. How? Executive Orders have two (2) main functions: to modify how an executive branch department or agency does its job (rule change) or to modify existing law, if such authority has been granted to the President by Congress. Executive orders are not mentioned by the Constitution, but they have been around a long, long time. Executive orders are subject to judicial review, and can be declared unconstitutional.
Jon Huintsman ... the candidate the republicans SHOULD have selected!
Obama/Biden 2012
Huntsman wasn't/isn't crazy enough for this cycle of TeaPeople.
Perhaps in 2016. By then the crazies will have worn themselves out and out of office.
Nah. He maybe the right choice but the day of right of center Republicans is long gone.
Let's face it Huntsman lacks chrisma. Okay, He boring... Zzzzzzzzz.
devie, I agree! But I think it was more of the other candidates being so over the top that they made Huntsman look boring!!!
Kinda like Willard.....without the lies!
I would have voted for Huntsman if I could have!
NorCal - Huntsman is a man of honor who puts country above party. That's part of what killed him with Republicans. Too bad. I have a lot of respect for him.
Obama/Biden 2012
Jon Huntsman was poor USA Ambassador to China.
Huntsman was the only
republican(actually he deserves uppercase) Republican in this cycle that was honorable, honest and that I would have considered voting for against Obama.I use to enjoy voting the man first and party second. But now the republicans have been hijacked by a bunch of nutcases that make the John Birchers look moderate. Few if any current republicans has the courage to do what is best for the Country if the tea baggers are against it.
The republicans full of white racist women hating trailer trash that are the pool boys for Norquist
As the only Huntsman supporter in the state of Florida during primary season, I've decided to add "State Co-ordinator for Presidential Campaign" to my resume. ;-)
Dang I wish he was my party's nominee.
Frank-
Cue Leslie Gore?...;'_
You would cry too if Mitt was representing you....
LOL...I admit it...I had to google Lesley Gore to see what you meant.
Way to make me feel even older, thanks Frank!...;-)
Frank and Dangerfield, Thanks for the laugh.
I wish Huntsman had been your nominee, too, Grimey. We need a real debate about the issues affecting our country today, and we're not getting it.
Hey, Dangerfield, you stole my joke from a couple of days ago!
Well, Grimey, if you want someone like Huntsman to be a GOP presidential nominee or even legislators, you and those like you need to clean house of the tea-nuts and radicals who seem to have taken the power from reasonable republicans.
I'm not saying you do this, Grimey, but republicans unhappy with the crazy right can clean house by no longer voting for someone just because there's an "R" by their name. That's what democrats did when the party went too far left; we stopped voting for them.
Frank - Huntsman is a good candidate, i just can't get fully on board with his social agenda. That said, the wife and i had a discussion a while back about how if Huntsman was running instead of Romney i'd have a much more difficult decision than i currently face...
Leslie Gore had a few good hits besides it's my party. Speaking of feeling old. An employee came in one day to work and was limping. I referred to him as Chester Good. He looked at me funny and I said you know Matt Dillon's sidekick. He said, I know who Matt Dillon is, he's an actor. I just shook my head and laughed.
I agree - jon huntsman would have been a much more formidable candidate.
Great White North Observer:
You are joking, right?
Huntsman? Is this to set the stage for 2016? Seriously, Mr. Huntsman, President Obama has been criticized for not being tough on China by republicans of every stripe including Mitt Romney yet his administration has filed 8 law suits against China for unfair trade practices and the result has been saving American jobs in solar panels, tires, steel to name three. President Obama has done more than "talk tough", his administration has taken action; he has done more to level the playing field in less than 4 years than Bush did in 8.
I say this. If China is our enemy, if we worry about their growing power, why do we spend so much time helping build their economic power by shipping jobs and manufacturing to China? Why do we consider it good trade practices to empower the country by causing harm to our own? I'm all for good relations with China but helping increase their economic power seems counterproductive to our own.
I don't agree with your political choice, but I do agree with your comment about helping China grow.
Jon Huntsman Republican's zinger.............
Then we would have a more balance debate....
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
I can't to see how the RWNJ's twist the results of the debate tomorrow. Their comedy is just to good to miss.
4 more 4 44
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Obama has a history with China relations and is known by the Chinese. There is no verbal contest needed. Romney has a history of stupid alienations with every country he has traveled to or talked about. That includes China, Russia, Poland, and Britain.
Obama has respect, but Romney has a reputation. It is good that behind the scenes he only considered a buffoon. He is off with the wrong foot in his mouth.
If Romney keeps his anti-China chatter up, China may just confiscate all of his Chinese investments.
The economic record of the GOP/RNC "Speculator and Chief" is very clear on china. He loves China, and has NO problem outsourcing US Jobs to China. His CEO record at Bain Capital is very clear. The Chinese Market is not so free however, the profits from that Chinese Markets, for the GOP/RNC "Romulian." Are great! The GOP/RNC "Romulian's" Bird Of Prey was built in China.
Obama sucks and we can prove it but the real question is who is the lesser of two evils? I'm hoping that Romney takes his head out of where the sun don't shine, and actually study up on Reaganomics, you know... when everything worked? Although I very much would not like Obama to be re-elected I do not understand why Republicans chose Romney as their representitive. But I suppose we shall find out. But remember that the weekly polls are not accurate as most Republicans(particularly most armed force retirees) are "sit and watchers" and make a statement when it counts, and would rather not deal with preliminary popularity contest polls. Just a note, if Romney wins and uses Reaganomics... if he renames it Romnenomics he should be sued! Haha.
Huntsman is the kind of moderate, reasonable Republican who has no place left in a party of right-wing extremists and nit-wits.
I wouild have voted for Huntsman over Obama but I am not Republican enough now for Sarah and Michelle and the rest of the white trailer trash that now makes up the Republican Party. Democrats did this in 72, watch the Republicans implode or yes there will be a 3rd party. Taking the adults from both sides.