HUNTSMAN: Listen, we have the most important relationship of the 21st Century with China. We’ve got to make it work. Of course we have challenges with them. We’ve had challenges for 40 years. It’s nonsense to think you can slap a tariff on China the first day that you’re in office, as Governor Romney would like to do.

You’ve got to sit down and sort through the issues of trade like you do with North Korea, like you do with Iran, like you do with Burma, and Pakistan, and the South China Sea. They’re all interrelated. And to have a president who actually understands how that relationship works would serve the interests of the people in this country, from an economics standpoint and from a security standpoint.

ROMNEY: I’m sorry, Governor, you were, the last two years, implementing the policies of this administration in China. The rest of us on this stage were doing our best to get Republicans elected across the country and stop the policies of this president from being put forward.

[ ...Romney comments at length about China stealing intellectual property among other things... ]

HUNTSMAN: I think it’s important to note, as they would say in China, that (speaking mandarin)…

(CROSSTALK)

HUNTSMAN: … he doesn’t quite understand this situation. What he is calling for would lead to a trade war. It makes for easy talk and a nice applause line but it’s far different from the reality in the U.S.-China relationship.

So, a robust back and forth.  Huntsman taking issue with Romney talking about coming down hard on China and Romney taking some issue with Huntsman saying he doesn’t know what he is talking about.  I took Romney’s jab about Huntsman’s time in China as a “heat of the moment” comment that simply reflected his displeasure at being criticized on his comments.

Well, on Sunday, without being questioned about this exchange, Huntsman deliberately brings it up, taking issue with Romney criticizing his “service to his country.”

HUNTSMAN: Let me say — let me say, first are all, with respect to Governor Romney, you know, there are a lot of people who are tuning in this morning, and I’m sure they’re terribly confused after watching all of this political spin up here.

I was criticized last night by Governor Romney for putting my country first. And I just want to remind the people here in New Hampshire and throughout the United States that I think…

(APPLAUSE)

He criticized me while he was out raising money for serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat, like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy. They’re not asking who — what political affiliation the president is.

I want to be very clear with the people here in New Hampshire and this country: I will always put my country first. And I think that’s important to them.

GREGORY: All right. Well, why don’t you get a response, Governor Romney? And then I’ll come back to you on the austerity question.

ROMNEY: I think we serve our country first by standing for people who believe in conservative principles and doing everything in our power to promote an agenda that does not include President Obama’s agenda. I think the decision to go and work for President Obama is one which you took. I don’t disrespect your decision to do that. I just think it’s most likely that the person who should represent our party running against President Obama is not someone who called him a remarkable leader and went to be his ambassador in China.

HUNTSMAN: This nation is divided, David, because of attitudes like that.

It was a pointed exchange.  I almost expected Romney to perhaps apologize, saying it was the wrong thing to say and that it was simply the heat of the moment.  However, he didn’t, he made some generic points about serving under Obama.

I was driving home tonight and listening to CSPAN radio here in the DC area and it had some live events from New Hampshire.  One of the events was Huntsman’s and he was reminding people of the exchange.  He asked the crowd if they’d caught the debate the day before.  He said something to the effect of “We made clear to one candidate that this campaign will always put this country before politics.”

It was then that I had an epiphany.  Huntsman, in his effort to decry partisanship, may have overlooked the awkward position from which he standing.  He “put his country first” and began his service as ambassador in August of 2009.  Less than 2 years later, he resigned from that position in April of 2011 to run for President.

In effect, according to Huntsman, he put politics ahead of country.

One of the articles that caught my eye was one about military spending & size when taking wealth and population into account.

It doesn’t seem fair to not factor in the wealth of a country when assessing its military budget.

So, if you take military budgets as a proportion of each country’s GDP, a very different picture emerges.

The US is knocked down into 8th place by such nations as Jordan, Burundi and Georgia. The UK plunges to 29th.

Then check out TED’s website about the session she opened where her name links to this group’s website.

I think my thoughts are pretty much in line with Bill Kristol’s back after Obama’s speech in Prague.

From Bill Kristol’s “A World Without Nukes — Just Like 1939″ April 7, 2009 Article  —-

Of course, we had a world without nuclear weapons not so long ago — say, in 1939. The war that began in that nuclear-free world led to a crash project to develop nuclear weapons. It ended with America’s use of them…

Yet to justify a world without nuclear weapons, what Obama would really have to envision is a world without war, or without threats of war.

As soon as we get rid of nuclear weapons though, we ought to get rid of unicorns.  They have a pointy horn.

Their “Rhetoric vs. Reality” video is excellent.

“It is not productive, given the history of US and Iranian relations to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections,” he said.

“But when I see violence directed at peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed… it is of concern to me and it is of concern to the American people.”

 Honduras:

Leaders from across the Western Hemisphere and beyond called for return to power of Zelaya, who arrested on Sunday morning by soldiers who stormed his residence and forced him into exile. The country now has another president appointed by its Congress, Roberto Micheletti, who insisted that Zelaya was legally removed by the courts and Congress for violating Honduras’ constitution and attempting to extend his own rule.

“We are very clear about the fact that President Zelaya is the democratically elected president,” Obama said.

Hat tip: Townhall.com’s Carol Platt Liebau

Again, Hat tip: Greg Hengler at Townhall.com’s blog

“Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped,” Obama said. “Such fatalism is a deadly adversary. If we believe that, then we are admitting that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.”

Actually, they haven’t been used since they were created during WWII, despite massive proliferation.  They are in fact, an incredible deterrent. If we get rid of nuclear weapons, lets get rid of all weapons.  No more conventional weapons, no jet fighters, no tanks.  How? Just click your heels together and say “Yes we can,” three times.

Newt Gingrich perhaps sums it up best:

Hat tip: Greg Hengler at Townhall Blog