Both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have done segments on the appointment of a soap opera producer as the new ambassador to Hungary (story here). The general gist of the segments is that she’s unqualified and this appointment was due to the fact that she helped raise $2.1M for Obama’s campaign.
I don’t want to debate her qualifications, or whether Obama should have appointed her. This isn’t GD, and I’m sure there are other threads on that. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that it is 100% a reward for being a successful fundraiser. What I want to know is – why would this be a desirable position?
Maybe it’s a cushy job, but it’s still a job. In some countries, it’s a dangerous job. But even in countries where there is little chance of anything terrible happening, it seems to me that it would be more of a hassle than anything else. Lots of schmoozing, event planning, glad-handling. Maybe the answer to my question is that some people like that kind of thing.
So sell me on it. I raised $2.1M for Obama, and word gets to me that he’d like to thank me by offering me an ambassadorship. Why should that interest me at all?
you get to live in a cool house, have a nice staff, meet interesting and important people and get treated with lots of respect. Granted, most people rich enough to get such an appointment already have those things. But as jobs go, it’s a pretty fun one.
Live in another country, in a nice house, with (probably) servants. Eat a lot of formal, tasty meals and attend lots of parties. Be a part of the upper-upper class of whatever country you’re sent to. Attract beautiful hangers-on of the desired gender. Live a life that’s almost as close to a feudal lord/lady as possible.
Also, the patronage appointments are as a rule to posts in friendly, safe countries. You send a career FSO to the flashpoints.
So, I raised 5 mill for Obama or for Hillary. Am contacted by a WH team member to ask if I’d mind an ambassadorship. My response is: got any place with good food, booze and topless beaches? ’ cause I already can just vacation there if I move that kind of money,
If you’re an Ambassador in a country we have good relations with (Any in western European country for example) it is a very cushy job. Sure a crisis could erupt but 99% of the time you get to live like a King in a foreign land on the Government’s dime.
Gee - a glamorous, moderately cushy job going to parties, meeting with Important People, dealing with spies, making speeches, looking and acting important, being part of history or at least an observer first-hand, and the kids pick up foreign culture for free. Who would want that?
And it’s only for a couple of years - President Romney will have his own over-priced, empty-headed butt to fill this sinecure in 2017.
Bolding mine. I wouldn’t want any of the bolded stuff – I’d much rather stay home.
However, I will concede that someone who has the ability raise $2.1M for a political campaign is very different than me, and probably does like that stuff.
You also get to terrorize career staff by being a demanding, overbearing and petulant asshole. I only had to work for one of those self-entitled assholes and that was enough. They’re not all like that, of course, but we’re talking about rich people who are used to getting their way and absolutely NOT used to being told “no” to spending $15,000 of taxpayer money on new seat cushion covers.
Have you ever enjoyed feeling important? Maybe you get a little rush when you put on a suit for interviews? Or you get a thrill when you have to venture downtown for a meeting? Or have you ever felt proud to be interviewed for TV, even if just for something trivial? Do you ever get a little excited for business travel? Even on a small scale, feeling important can feel pretty good.
Well, it’s like that, but amplified exponentially. You get to live in your own personal version of the West Wing, and in an appealing and exotic locale at that. Picture eating dinner with people you see on the news, having the inside scoop on US foreign policy, and basically being in the thick of everything.
It’s not a good match for people who dream of just lazing out. But for people who want to see the inside story and be close to power, it’s a lot of fun.
Supposedly, the Wednesday strip is targeting Mel Sembler, who was named Ambassador to Australia by George H.W. Bush; “coincidentally,” he had donated $100,000 to Bush’s election campaign.
For a retired politician (like Walter Mondale) or a former senior government or military official an ambassadorship is usually the culmination of decades of experience in the field and they can use that. Walter Mondale probably had many pre existing contacts in Japan for instance, which were useful for him in his ambassadorship.
Plus you get the cool passport - and can yell “I have diplomatic immunity” - live in the cool place - use the diplomatic pouch - have the license plates - and people that are interested in raising funds would definitely love this type of stuff.
I was quite amused when walking down embassy row a few years ago - the embassies didn’t seem to really be correlated to the size/population/importance/whatever of the country - I believe it was a relative hot day - and the only embassy that I saw that was watering its lawn - and looked pretty good - was Ivory Coast.
You wear suits every day, with a tie and a silk kerchief in your pocket. This means you’ve got a killer wardrobe complete with 8 pairs of ridiculously expensive Italian shoes.
You carry an attaché case and it is thin and black and leather and contains important information and a combination lock.
You ski in Switzerland, and you will take 17 ski trips this season with several different companions including that Russian girl Maria, and one impromptu trip with Marguerite, the Austrian girl you met at that dinner party in London.
Your driver does most of the driving for you except on days when you want to drive. In which case you take dad’s 1967 spotless cherry red XKE.
There’s a yacht waiting for you in that Italian port town that you can’t pronounce. Ciao.
No. You do not carry an attache case. Your attache does that for you. You shake hands with both hands, look people in the eye and smile and make small talk.
