We know that Mitt Romney speaks French and that this fact has insanely been used in attack ads against him. Why does knowing and speaking a foreign language make anyone less qualified to be president of the United States? In fact, I think it makes them slightly more qualified, implying a certain worldliness to their character.
Thirty former presidents were at least bilingual. Teddy Roosevelt and John Adams were masters of six and wine loving Thomas Jefferson spoke ten languages. This brings us to Republican candidate Jon Huntsman. Remarkably, he speaks Mandarin, an incredibly difficult language for any English speaker to learn.
Huntsman learned the Chinese dialect while on a Mormon missionary trip in Taiwan. He proved it at a town hall meeting in South Carolina, which unfortunately left some people, including the Donald, cold.
"I didn’t think the Mandarin thing worked at all. I thought it was ridiculous,” Donald Trump told Fox News. “And frankly, I think Huntsman’s stance toward China is – it’s almost like he’s an Obama plant.”
Former head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele Huntsman commented on MSNBC, “I thought he was ordering takeout.” Ouch!
Given that China is the most populated country in the world and one of the U.S.'s largest trading partners (love it or hate it), it might be a good idea for some of the other candidates to start brushing up on their Mandarin .
For those with that extra intimate relationship, this might be fun place to start:
