I feel compelled to step in and briefly say something about this. Previously here and here.
Various sources -- notably Jake Tapper here, and Politico here -- are reporting that "White House officials" expect Jon Huntsman (right, with one of his daughters) to leave his job as ambassador to China "in the coming months," to consider running against Barack Obama next year.
The "in the coming months" part strikes me as non-news. I believe it was generally understood that the Huntsmans had made a two-year commitment to the job, which would take them through this summer.
The "assumed to be considering a run" part is quite different. I really like Jon Huntsman personally and respect him politically. I continue to think that he was an inspired choice for the job in Beijing. I believe he represents a tenable national future for the Republicans when they are past the Tea Party stage.
But these reports, which he now quite notably has not knocked down, create an impossible situation. If he is seriously planning a run to take the White House away from Obama, how can he continue to serve in the Administration?* How can Obama keep him? Unless, for clever sandbagging purposes, Obama is driving home his closeness to Huntsman, and also delaying the (already late) start to his campaign, to handicap him in the Republican primaries.