A little bit of Chicago's ruthless and combative political machine is soon to descend on the decorous calm of the Court of St James.Yes, well, when he said he’s ‘end cronyism’, he obviously meant the other guy’s cronyism.
Despite promising to end cronyism in Washington, Barack Obama is about to appoint one of his home town friends and financial backers to the plum posting of US ambassador to London.
Let’s face it, he knows whatever he does, his adoring fans (that the MSM to you and me) will provide cover for him.
The next ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary will be Louis Susman, a lawyer and financier with little experience of foreign affairs.Nothing like letting the amateurs have a go. Still, at least, unlike Obama, he’ll probably figure out that region 1 DVDs don’t work over here...
London is not the only posting being used to reward political supporters. Other positions in Europe are expected to be filled on the basis of patronage. Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, who campaigned for Obama, is to be the ambassador to Dublin.They’ll love that...
The appointments will disappoint former US career diplomats who have been pressing Obama to end the practice, especially since he promised to offer more of the top jobs to diplomats. In the Washington Post in December, a retired diplomat with 30 years' service, Morton Abramowitz, called on Obama to "declare that he will not appoint ambassadors who have secured their posts through financial contributions and who have little background to merit any such appointment".Oh, Morton! You expect The One to take heed of a mere mortal’s opinion?
Weren’t you watching the same Presidential campaign I was last autumn?
This isn't unique toObama, all US governments use abassadorships for rewarding cronies and donors. We use the honours system instead which is much better imho.
ReplyDeleteNo, indeed. It's just that he swore he wouldn't do it himself and these idiots actually believed him.
ReplyDeleteJuliaM
ReplyDeleteChicago's Democratic political machine is not so much "ruthless and combative" as hopelessly corrupt. No-one connected with the machine should be viewed without the gravest misgivings. That includes Obama, his sainted wife and Susman (who makes Lord Levy look like Mother Teresa)
Ending the other guy's cronyism sounds a bit like El Gordo explaining that he'd only promised to abolish TORY boom and bust.
ReplyDeleteGood old bog-standard caused-by-every-single-Labour-government-type boom and bust, of course, is always with us. Only this time, even worse than usual.