Chris Christie was one of only two governors who attended the White House state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao Wednesday night, the Bergen Record reported. But the New Jersey governor and former U.S. Attorney wasn’t the only potential Republican challenger to President Barack Obama in attendance.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and his wife Mary Pat Christie arrive at the White House for a state dinner. (Getty)
Obama’s ambassador to China, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), was at the dinner in his role as envoy to China. Huntsman recently refused to rule out a bid for the GOP nomination to challenge Obama in 2012, telling Newsweek when asked about his presidential ambitions: “I think we may have one final run left in our bones.”
Christie served as New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney from 2002 to 2008 in a tenure marked by various high-profile controversies, including his office’s steering of a compliance monitoring contract worth up to $52 million to the firm of former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Although he is frequently mentioned as a potential 2012 candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, Christie recently said he didn’t think he was ready to run.
The dinner honoring China’s president was the third official state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama since he took office. Christie told McClatchy newspapers: “It’s a great night for our country,” adding, “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat.”
China’s Innovative Way of Skinning the United States!
Mark Twain’s, on point, used “more than one way to skin a cat”, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, follows: “she was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat”, that is, more than one way to get what she wanted. Thefreedictionary.com provides a conventional definition of beggar-thy’s-neighbor as: an international trade policy of competitive devaluations and increased protective barriers that one country institutes to gain at the expense of its trading partners. Under the guise of fostering ‘indigenous innovation’ in its economy, the Chinese government creatively applies its own, non-conventional, subtle version of beggar-thy-neighbor. Its version doesn’t entail the competitive devaluation of its own currency, which would enhance China’s exports and inhibits its trading partners’ exports. China’s ‘indigenous innovation’ version perpetrates an over-valuation of the currencies of one or more of its trading partners. This adversely affecting all that (those) trading partners’ trade, with all its (their) trading partners, not just trade with China. During the periods China pegged its currency to the U.S. Dollar, China’s version of beggar-thy-neighbor was 8 times as damaging to the U.S. economy as what the media refers to as “China keeping it currency undervalued”.
In November 2003, Warren Buffett in his Fortune, Squanderville versus Thriftville article recommended that America adopt a balanced trade model. The fact that advice advocating balance and sustainability, from a sage the caliber of Warren Buffett, could be virtually ignored for over seven years is unfathomable. Until action is taken on Buffett’s or a similar balanced trade model, by the powers that be, America will continue to squander time, treasure and talent in pursuit of an illusionary recovery.