Shock!!! Obama eyeing '12 race: Huntsman quits as Utah gov to be Obama’s ambassador to China

The move is freighted with political intrigue. Huntsman, who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, quickly emerged after November as one of the leading moderate GOP voices…
Huntsman, who met with Obama’s transition team to discuss energy policy, was in Washington on Friday night, ahead of a planned Saturday announcement by the White House, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Several Utah news organizations said the governor will resign and accept the appointment.

Huntsman, 49, served a Mormon mission in Taiwan. The governor and his wife, Mary Kaye, adopted a daughter, Gracie Mei, from China in 1999. In 2006, he led a trade mission to China “because of their prominence on the world stage and the way in which they are growing so rapidly,” he told the Deseret Morning News of Salt Lake City.

Huntsman today said he “never expected” as national co-chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign to be standing there. But when the president asks for service, he said, “that to me is the end of the conversation.” Huntsman said first in Mandarin, then English, a Chinese saying: “Together we work. Together we progress.”