"… I will lead and I will take an occasional risk. We live in an era in which taking no risk is sometimes the biggest risk of all ... my proposals will not be influenced by personal ambition or political need ... whatever political capital I now possess will be used for the good of this state..." (Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., 2005 inauguration speech).

Politicians should take heed: He leaves office with an 84 percent approval rating. The lesson: The more political capital leaders use for the public good, the more it grows. He understood and was able to express what was in the hearts and minds of people.

When I first heard that speech I thought, is this guy for real? Is this a political leader, who really understands global forces and how they affect our lives; who has a reverence for history and the need to cling to our common values? Will he keep his optimism and hope he conveys to us about our future or will he do what others have done, do anything to stay in office? I decided I would talk to him a year later about his record so far, and ask why he wrote such a visionary speech. His reply, " I wanted it to be a harbinger of things to come. ... Words matter."

When elected, he was perceived by many as a "lightweight," too na?e and friendly. However, in his first year, without confrontation or fanfare, he made it clear he would oppose dumping nuclear waste in Utah, was able to start a dialogue about immigration that state and national leaders considered political suicide; he even jumped on a plane to talk to the Mexican president about it. He was able to bring opposing parties together to resolve the long standoff over the Legacy Highway. He focused on the goals he set out to improve – the economy, education, infrastructure and governance — and he did improve them.

I can't help but wonder if the greatest legacy he would like to leave is how he brought us together, showed us how to reach out to those in greatest need among us; his compassion when he reached out during the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster, during southern Utah floods, to mothers in drug recovery who took walks by the governor's mansion, and to the father of a young boy, tragically killed in an accident, who waited on the sidewalk outside the mansion and talked with the governor.