Change we can’t believe in, post one
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 7/3/09 @ 1:31 pm - Filed Under National Politics
This post is the first post of a series of posts that will document some of the failed promises of President Obama and some of his poorer decisions.
President Obama ran on a platform of change and hope.
His first five months in office have been marred by numerous broken campaign promises and little of the change that he promised.
This article is well worth your time. Most worthy of your attention is this paragraph:
This tension can be traced back to Mr. Obama’s claim during last year’s campaign that President George W. Bush engaged in an “extraordinary politicization of foreign policy.” Mr. Obama said he instead would ensure that hires are based on merit, rather than party or ideology. The American Academy of Diplomacy, an association of former diplomats, seized on the comments in lobbying him to lower the portion of ambassadors drawn from outside the foreign-service establishment to as little as 10% from the 30% average since President John F. Kennedy’s tenure. (Mr. Bush’s score was 33%.)
First off Republican and Democrat Presidents have often appointed large campaign donors to various ambassadorships. This policy is 100% wrong. It should stop. Instead Presidents should appoint those people who are the most qualified.
Appointing those people who donated large sums of money to your campaign is wrong.
President Obama specifically attacked President Bush on this topic; then once elected he continued the practice; in fact, he may well appoint even more of his large donors than President Bush did.
I would imagine that the only person reading this blog who would think that President Obama is right to appoint large donors to ambassadorships would be Kevin Knuth…
I have a feeling this is going to be a long series of posts before President Obama’s first (and only) term is up.
Mike Sylvester
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“Appointing those people who donated large sums of money to your campaign is wrong.”
It’s the Chicago Way, Mike.