Possible McCain VP pick sees long healing from Iraq

By Adam Tanner

SALT LAKE CITY, March 13 (Reuters) - Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., a possible Republican vice presidential choice, said in an interview it will take a generation to heal global ties frayed by the U.S. war in Iraq.

"We have a lot of repairing to do in the international marketplace. We have some alliances to rebuild and we have some fences to mend," Huntsman, a former diplomat, told Reuters on Tuesday evening. "It's going to take a generation."

Huntsman, son of one of Utah's leading businessmen, was elected governor in 2004 and this week filed for re-election in November. In a state where 90 percent -- including his father -- backed ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a fellow Mormon, in the Republican February primary, Huntsman supported the now-presumed Republican nominee John McCain.

With his background in government service, including a stint as U.S. ambassador to Singapore, Huntsman has been seen as a possible running mate or Cabinet officer for McCain.

At age 46, the father of seven (including one adopted daughter from China and another from India), he would also provide a youthful balance to the 71-year-old McCain.

The senator from neighboring Arizona said on Wednesday he had begun the process of finding a running mate, but gave no hints as to whom he might favor. McCain is scheduled to visit Salt Lake City later this month for a fund-raiser.

"I think anyone would be interested in being vice president, but is it a reality? Probably not," Huntsman said. "John McCain's going to have a lot of good choices and I suspect once you do the calculations, Utah probably isn't going to factor into it as a strategically consequential state."

In the past, some presidential candidates have chosen running mates from a different region, often from states with many votes, to balance the ticket. Heavily Republican Utah is considered certain to back the Republican candidate anyway.

And the last two presidents broke the pattern. George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney from sparsely populated Wyoming and Bill Clinton of Arkansas picked fellow southerner Al Gore.

Huntsman is a Mormon, which could be a factor in a national election. "In some corners of the country there is a very distinct bias, and I don't know that that is easily overcome," the Utah governor said. "To the extent that the LDS faith is a newer faith, only a couple hundred years old as opposed to 2,000 years old, it is seen a little bit differently," he said, referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (Editing by Howard Goller and David Wiessler)