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JERSEY CITY: Former US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman entered the race to unseat his ex-boss, President Barack Obama, on Tuesday behind his Republican competitors in the polls but with praise for a strong fledgling campaign.
Pledging to make “hard decisions” to prevent America sinking into a debt disaster, the former governor of Utah formally announced his candidacy at the same site in front of the Statue of Liberty where Ronald Reagan launched his successful first bid for the White House in 1980.
Huntsman, 51, is way behind in polls of other Republicans seeking the party's nomination in 2012, but he is expected to benefit from a high profile in the media. His entry into the race worries the Democratic Obama administration because of his possible cross-party appeal.
Huntsman upset the White House in April by quitting his job in Beijing to prepare for the race against Obama who appointed him in 2009.
Speaking at Liberty State Park in New Jersey as the wind whipped the American flags arrayed behind him, Huntsman pledged to turn America around as president.
“For the first time in our history, we are passing down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got,” Huntsman said.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is totally unacceptable and totally un-American,” he told the small crowd of supporters, campaign aides and press.
If Huntsman picks up traction in public opinion polls, he could rival former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for the role of the moderate Republican candidate.
“We must make hard decisions that are necessary to avert disaster,” the former Utah governor said, painting a bleak picture of the debt problem and the huge US budget deficit, due to hit $1.4 trillion this fiscal year.
“If we don't, in less than a decade, every dollar of federal revenue will go to covering the costs of Medicare, Social Security and interest payments on our debt. Meanwhile, we'll sink deeper into debt for everything else, from national security to disaster relief,” Huntsman said.
Huntsman paints his knowledge of China, America's main global commercial rival and foreign lender, as a strength. But some conservative voters see his working for Obama as a liability.
Huntsman learned to speak Chinese while on a Mormon mission to Taiwan during his college years. He and his wife have seven children: five biological and two adopted from Asia.
