Ms. Haley could be compared to previous UN ambassadors…I can not think of one who was so grossly mismatched against the other 180 or so folks. Think of some of the names…Stevenson, Lodge, Bush, etc. etc. As others have noted, Haley is another of the horrible choices for leaders in his admnistration made with the basic aim of destroying the department to which they are nominated.
Stephenson, Lodge, and Bush were all political appointments, too, though. None of them had any diplomatic experience at the time (although Lodge would become Ambassador to S. Vietnam and Bush Ambassador to China), and that’s true of a bunch of other UN Ambassadors…Stanton, Goldberg, Austin, Young, Richardson, Danforth. Those were all politicians, none of whom had any diplomatic experience.
They perhaps had an understanding that politics isn’t just about foghorning what you believe to be right.
PS Perhaps someone should try out Ms. Haley onSan Serriffe
In all fairness, I don’t think she’s the first politician to fall for a gag like this, but she probably is the first one who has this high of a profile.
I still think Gary Johnson’s dazed and confused response to the Aleppo question was worse - like way worse. Sure, he wasn’t going to win, but he was a former governor of an American state and he was supposed to represent a more intellectual type of conservatism. The question didn’t really even require advanced knowledge of geography. The city’s name was in the press every day - sometimes multiple times during the day. He had no idea.
I doubt the analysis went that deep. They voted for Trump because they themselves really have no appreciation for the value of career bureaucrats. Nor do they have any appreciation for how complex the (largely) American-made post-WWII political world order is, and how our strategic relationships and partnerships benefit the average American. They assume that any problem we face can be dealt with by a B-2 bomber, not really comprehending that our military power also depends on things like getting rights from other countries to use their air bases, their air space, their ports of call, and so on. The era of Trump isn’t some sort of “Oops!” moment that we will awaken from; it very much reflects and represents how at least one half of this country thinks.
Whenever I see something like this, the first thing I do is look for it in the Washington Post and the NYT. And oddly enough, this story is not being reported in either of those newspapers (as far as I can tell).
Jim Mattis, but that’s about it.
How about Newsweek?
While Haley is useless with her knowledge of international relations and foreign policy, it bothers me more that someone who served as governor of a state that was often unfavorably in the news isn’t extremely cautious of getting pranked in this way.
I first heard about this from the talking heads on MSNBC. Not exactly the most reliable source. I was skeptical searching for this until I found the audio, and then couldn’t find a denial. I think the mainstream press avoids covering pranks like this because they’ve been Howard Sterned so many times.
The situation in Binomo is that someone was pulling her turkish taffy.
Is “San Sarriffe” anywhere near “San Sombrero”?
Gotta agree, this is something that should be on your radar as a hazard. And for crying out loud, never mind diplomat, a competent *politician *should have developed the skill to come up with a let-me-get-back-to-you-on-that answer for when you don’t know WTF is the interviewer talking about.
Plus, if you’re UN Ambassador, it sort of behooves you to be aware of what are the real countries in the world. Sure, you may miss some secessionist provinces or some associated island dependencies but at the very least you should be able to get suspicious.