This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Hypothetically, let's say Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for president but wants to shore up support with independents by looking beyond her party for a running mate. Might she bring on a moderate Republican such as Jon Huntsman?
Far-fetched? Maybe not.
Huntsman famously (infamously to some) wrote a thank-you note to President Barack Obama in 2009 for choosing him as the U.S. ambassador to China, calling Obama a "remarkable leader." He even underlined the phrase, a bit of punctuation that came back to haunt Huntsman during his short-lived GOP presidential race in 2012.
Less known is that Huntsman penned another note at that time, to ex-President Bill Clinton, extolling the virtues of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"I must report that Sec. Clinton has won the hearts and minds of the State Dept. bureaucracy — no easy task. And after watching her in action, I can see why. She is well-read, hardworking, personable and has even more charisma than her husband! It's an honor to work with her," Huntsman wrote just before he left the Utah governor's office to take the spot in Obama's administration.
That wasn't the only time Huntsman showed his affection for Hillary.
"At the risk of totally destroying my future in politics, I have to say she is a very impressive public servant," said Huntsman during an Ora.tv interview with Larry King in 2014. "I haven't been around too many people as professional, as well briefed, as good with people at all levels of life, whether a head of state or the person holding open the door. I think that's the measure of a leader."
While he noted their different political allegiances, Huntsman called Clinton "a very, very capable person."
Sure sounds like a job pitch.
Huntsman brushes off the idea of a Clinton-Huntsman unity ticket, though he doesn't outright reject it.
"That's highly unlikely and not even worth speculating on," he said in a classic nondenial denial.
There remains a more plausible role for Huntsman in the next administration no matter which party wins. How about Secretary of State Huntsman?
Huntsman has built a résumé befitting the nation's top diplomat. He's a two-time ambassador, former deputy trade representative and governor, not to mention now chairman of the Atlantic Council.
Most people outside Washington, D.C., haven't heard of this foreign-policy group, but it has been a stopping point for many future Cabinet members. Huntsman took over in January 2014, taking the reins previously held by retired Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a moderate Republican whom Obama tapped to be defense secretary. Before Hagel, it was Gen. James L. Jones, who became Obama's national security adviser.
There's precedent for a Democratic president to pick Republicans for a few choice Cabinet spots. A Democrat adding a Republican to the ticket is a bigger reach. But Huntsman — if he continues to shower praise on Clinton — may be vying to be the first.
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The Mormon question • While polls showed voters remained somewhat skeptical of a Mormon presidential candidate, few would outright criticize Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman for their religious affiliation during the 2012 presidential contest.
One major exception took place during a conservative gathering in Washington in October 2011.
Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, introduced Texas Gov. Rick Perry, calling him a "proven leader, a true conservative and a committed follower of Christ." After the speech, Jeffress let loose.
"Rick Perry's a Christian. He's an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ," the pastor told reporters. "Mitt Romney's a good moral person, but he's not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity."
Romney, who had been determined not to engage on the Mormon issue every time it came up, kept silent but Huntsman, who had no love for Romney, decided he couldn't stay mute.
"The fact that, you know, some moron can stand up and make a comment like that — first of all it's outrageous," Huntsman said. "Second of all, the fact that we are spending so much time discussing it makes it even worse."
He added that religion should be off the table, and surrogates needed to know that.
"This kind of talk, I think, has no home in American politics these days," he said. "Anyone who is associated with someone willing to make those comments ought to stand up, distance themselves in very bold language, and that hasn't been done. And Rick ought to stand up and do that."
Perry distanced himself from the remarks. And Huntsman shifted his attention back to jabbing at Romney.
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Tithe-payer in the White House • Decades ago, Jon Huntsman Sr. worked at the U.S. Health, Education and Welfare Department all of six months before a friend on President Richard Nixon's personal staff recommended him for a higher-profile post that would place him a few feet from the Oval Office.
Fred Malek was able to give Huntsman a warning exactly 10 minutes before H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff, called. Haldeman demanded that Huntsman rush to the White House. When Huntsman got there, Haldeman had him cool his heels in the West Wing waiting room for 90 minutes. The interviews lasted two grueling days and included questions from Vice President Spiro Agnew. Finally, Haldeman ended his inquisition with: "Are you a full tithe payer for your church?"
The question stunned Huntsman. He'd never had anyone outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ask him that question. He said, yes, he did give the church 10 percent of his income.
"Good," Haldeman said, "we don't have to worry about your integrity then, do we?"
Huntsman became Nixon's staff secretary in February 1971, a job that paid $6,000 a year less than his HEW post, but came with some heady responsibilities, including managing staff salaries and the president's documents. He held the job for a year.
He later would say he left because his fledgling Styrofoam packing company needed him and so did his large family, which may have been true, but he also was exhausted and frustrated. The man was burned out, unwilling to deal with the intense pressures of the West Wing any longer. And the feeling was mutual. Haldeman had had his fill of Huntsman and wanted him gone.
Reflecting decades later on his year on Nixon's staff, Huntsman was full of warring emotions. He told interviewers it was "a great experience" and professed his love for Nixon. At the same time, he displayed his loathing for Haldeman.
He ended up leaving the White House four months before the June 1972 Watergate break-in, which eventually would take down Nixon and send Haldeman to prison. Huntsman escaped the scandal untouched.
Months later, he would realize how close he came to being a co-conspirator. In December 1971, Haldeman asked Huntsman to approach one of his first employers with an offer. The president would nominate Dudley Swim, a California recluse and a brilliant investor, to become the ambassador to Australia for $100,000 in cash. Swim, for whom Huntsman worked briefly, initially resisted, but eventually consented. The plan was for Huntsman to fly to California to pick up the money. Huntsman says he didn't understand why Swim couldn't just write a check, until Watergate press coverage disclosed that the Committee to Re-elect the President was collecting illegal contributions and using them for nefarious purposes.
Swim died of a heart attack the day before Huntsman was expected to make the trip.
"His passing saved me from becoming a bagman in an illegal contribution scheme," Huntsman said. "And, for that, I remain forever grateful."
Huntsman had a hard time reconciling the Nixon he knew with the one who resigned in disgrace.
"There was obviously a dark side to Nixon. History has proven that. I didn't see it. His behavior didn't suggest it. I was treated extremely well by the president. I loved him," he said. Later he added: "Nixon was my hero and my kids' hero."
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Terrorism and the Olympics • Utah's Olympic planners wanted a big stage to unveil the torchbearers for the 2002 Winter Games and could think of no better place to do it than New York City's Battery Park, where Lady Liberty would stand behind them holding the nation's most famous torch. Their plan was to hold the event on Sept. 11, 2001, less than a mile from the World Trade Center.
A budget snafu forced Romney to reschedule his travel plans, saving him from a traumatic and dangerous experience. Instead, he was in Washington, D.C., appearing on a Salt Lake City radio show by phone when the reporter cut him off to announce that a plane had crashed into the twin towers. Romney hung up. He turned on the TV in the office of Cindy Gillespie, the lobbyist for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, and called his wife, Ann. They said little to each other as they watched the buildings burn.
Romney's daze ended when a plane slammed into the Pentagon. Gillespie said if they didn't leave soon, they may get stuck in downtown Washington. They jumped in her BMW convertible and headed toward Virginia, a path that took them past the Pentagon and through a haze of black smoke from the wreckage.
"It didn't smell like burning jet fuel or a house fire," Romney said. "It smelled like nothing I had ever smelled before. Like war."
Gillespie drove him to a hotel in Alexandria, where Romney tried to process what was happening, the realization that the nation had come under attack, that thousands had been killed and, eventually, what that meant for the Olympics.
"Mitt wondered inwardly whether we could even hold the Games," Ann Romney said. "He wouldn't say it publicly, but that was his nagging fear."
Reporters started calling within a few hours, but Romney didn't want to make a statement. It didn't feel right talking about the Olympics only hours after the towers collapsed. By that night, he changed his mind, releasing a short statement that in part read: "As a testament to the courage of the human spirit, and as a world symbol of peace, the Olympics is needed even more today than yesterday."
When Romney returned, he gathered hundreds of Olympic staffers in an outdoor courtyard and gave an impassioned speech about the ability of the Games to transcend terrorism and display the strength of this wounded country. Attendees called it his most presidential moment. People cried and cheered and sang "God Bless America."
In the aftermath, Romney and his team completed a review of the Olympic security plan and received expanded federal support.
During the Opening Ceremony, Mike Eruzione and the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" gold-medal-winning U.S. hockey team lit the Olympic caldron as eight athletes carried an American flag salvaged from the World Trade Center, a moment Romney would often recall on the presidential campaign trail.
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Coffee in the prophet's face • There was a time when Mormons could down coffee any time they wanted. Before the Word of Wisdom took full effect and banned the hot beverage — along with alcohol and tea — it was commonplace for Latter-day Saints to brew some grounds for breakfast.
And so it was that the beverage, now shunned by Mormons, played into one of funnier stories in the Huntsman family history.
The tale takes place in Fillmore, then Utah's territorial capital, where James and Mary Huntsman had a home attached to an old fort. Brigham Young would often stop by the Huntsman homestead on his way from Salt Lake City to St. George. On one of those visits, he saw James chopping wood. They chatted and the Mormon leader abruptly said: "What I really came to ask you is, why don't you take another wife?"
James asked his prophet to talk to Mary and get her permission before he joined the ranks of Mormon polygamists. When he obliged, Mary thought about it for a second, picked up her cup and threw her coffee in Young's face, saying, "This is my answer."
Brigham went out of the house, dried himself off and said: "James, you have all the wives you can handle."
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Smile! You're on TMZ • From surreptitious photos of his date nights with his wife to awkward selfies on airplanes, Mitt Romney is the first presidential runner-up to face the full force of social media — a rather sad, voyeuristic experience for which every modern politician must now prepare.
Two weeks after Obama's re-election, Mitt and Ann Romney were spotted at a movie theater, where they watched the latest "Twilight" flick. Afterward, they enjoyed some pizza. How do we know this? Someone on the street snapped pictures and sent them to TMZ. Two days later, multiple people caught Romney pumping gas in La Jolla, Calif., wearing a wrinkled blue dress shirt with his sleeves rolled and his hair mussed. The blurry images appeared on Twitter and Reddit. The next day, dozens of people pulled out their smartphones to document the Romney family's trip to Disneyland.
The photos didn't stop. There's the picture of him buying a McFlurry in Washington, the same day he met with Obama at the White House for lunch, a meal that included white turkey chili and Southwestern grilled chicken salad but apparently no dessert. There's one showing Romney pushing a cart out of Costco, a black ballcap riding high on his head. He bought two cases of water, paper towels, a down coat and a whole lot of V8.
Welcome to the new reality in which Hillary Clinton's visits to Chipotle become news and selfies with Romney will continue to dot Facebook pages for years to come.