Part of the reason I thought Jon Huntsman made for a strange presidential candidate — if not an outright bad one — is the same reason, in retrospect, Al Gore didn’t win: he was too sensible. And as a result — like Gore — Huntsman is much better suited for a position that doesn’t require egomania, knavery, and lies. Taking nothing away from Gary Locke, but Huntsman should be the US ambassador to China forever.

He was on CCTV America recently, speaking to Mike Walter, about Sino-US relations — building bridges, establishing friendship, all the kind of things Democrats and Republicans will never do on Capitol Hill. And of course, he pulled out the Mandarin early on:

So the last four years, I would argue, we’ve come around to the realization that the US-China relationship is the most important relationship in the world. Now for the next four years, it’s going to be, What do you do about it? And how do you reorganize the bureaucracies on both sides? Now that you have a reelected president, and after the 18th Party Congress you’ll have a new group of leaders at the very top in Beijing, so now it’s four years of what do we do about the reality that we’re both on the world stage, the United States and China? Both presidents have said repeatedly over the last four years that the 中美关系是这世界上最重要的关系 — the US-China relationship is the world’s most important relationship.

P.S. Despite this segment being aired on state television, Youku censors wanted no part of it. The video can’t be found on Chinese Internet. Mike Walter should’ve asked about that.