Trump's search for diplomat revives Romney, Huntsman rivalry

[...] Donald Trump, the brash Manhattanite who got there first, may have revived the rivalry between Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman by considering each of them for secretary of State.

The very prospect of revisiting the Romney-Huntsman competition gives the subject the sensitivity of a toothache among Utahns — where Romney beat out Huntsman to head the 2002 Olympics — and awkwardness in national politics, where the two have vied for years.

"When it comes to foreign policy, he is very, very not smart," the 2012 GOP presidential nominee said of Trump in March.

Huntsman in October called on Trump to drop out of the presidential race after the release of a recording on which Trump brags about groping women.

[...] the mention of a new showdown resurrects a legendary rivalry among sons of families whose ties go back centuries and are deeply personal.

[...] Huntsman Jr. endorsed the eventual GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain, who went on to lose to Democrat Barack Obama.