White House picks ambassadors for Great Britian, France.

OK, I admit it: the Ambassador to France part is mostly mentioned because of the Yo Gabba Gabba thing.  Which is something that I’ve never actually watched, although I have a sinking feeling that as the kids get older I will be forced to correct that.  Anyway, it’s business as usual when it comes to giving out the prestige diplomatic appointments:

Big Dem Donors Score Plum Ambassadorships

Yo Gabba Gabba, indeed.

President Obama last night announced his intention to nominate a dozen individuals to key ambassadorships. Among them: entertainment executive and Democratic fundraiser Charles Rivkin, who the president has tapped to be Ambassador to France.

In 2005 Rivkin became president and CEO of W!LDBRAIN, an award-winning entertainment company that produces the Nickelodeon hit “Yo Gabba Gabba!” He served as the co-finance chair in California of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Continue reading White House picks ambassadors for Great Britian, France.

Obama to make mega-bundler Louis Susman Ambassador to England?

Come, I will hide nothing from you: it would be blatantly unfair for me to mock the President for choosing Chicago bundler Louis Susman to be the ambassador to the Court of Saint James. You see, unlike a certain subset of the population I know how the game is actually played; certain ambassadorships are considered prestigious, and some aren’t. The ones that are prestigious – and I don’t think that they get much more prestigious than the one for Great Britain – are going to be filled for political reasons, which means that generally they will not be filled by a professional diplomat. The last four were, in fact: a retired admiral, a senior government official/financial guy; a financial/oil guy; and a senior government official/car dealership owner. An investment banker who raised 500 grand for the President is not particularly surprising, in other words… unless you happened to be one of those people who actually believed that line of Obama’s about how he was going to do things differently. As I didn’t and don’t, I really can’t see how I can go off on this, so I won’t.

Besides, the Brits are already doing it for me. Continue reading Obama to make mega-bundler Louis Susman Ambassador to England?