The bold and the sold: Barack Obama spoils diplomacy - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c087bdb6-7bb4-11e4-a695-00144feabdc0.html
Until recently, ambassadorial postings split roughly seven to 10 in favour of career diplomats — with presidential donors taking about 30 per cent. In Mr Obama’s second term, the share of political names has risen to 41 per cent, according to the Foreign Service Association, which represents America’s increasingly alienated career diplomats.
In other words, things have deteriorated since 2008. This chiefly reflects the galloping costs of US elections, rather than any moral failing on Mr Obama’s part. But some of the damage is self-inflicted. When Mr Obama campaigned for office, he vowed to “change the way Washington does business”. Arguably he has kept that promise, but not in the way voters interpreted it.
The trend also undercuts another of Mr Obama’s pledges: to take diplomacy much more seriously than Mr Bush, whom he rightly criticised for relying too heavily on military means of engaging the world.