Ambassadorships Given to Biggest Fund-Raisers

Every administration places a certain number of non-diplomat types in the ambassadorships around the world. The number historically hovers just above 10 percent, although the average since John F. Kennedy's presidency has been about 30 percent.

Guess what Barack Obama's percentage is?

First, however, consider that then candidate Obama last year pledged that ambassadors would be appointed "based on merit," not party affiliation or ideology. He hammered the Bush administration for having 33 percent of its diplomats who were not trained in diplomacy.

Have you made your guess?

Try 60 percent. True.

This President of Prevarication is setting new records for putting non-qualified people into roles that will expose America to potential embarrassments. A couple of Wall Street Journal reporters note, for example, that the new ambassador to Tokyo is a name you may not recognize:

President Barack Obama's pick for the post is from a different mold: John Roos, a San Francisco Bay area lawyer, was the president's chief Silicon Valley fundraiser and contributions "bundler." He has no diplomatic experience.

Mr. Obama's choice of Mr. Roos, along with other political boosters -- from former investment banker Louis B. Susman, known as the "vacuum cleaner" for his fundraising prowess, to Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney -- has raised eyebrows among some who thought the president would extend his mantra of change to the diplomatic corps.

"We're not only insulting nations [that] we're appointing these bundlers to, we're risking U.S. diplomatic efforts in these key countries," said Craig Holman, a government-affairs lobbyist at watchdog group Public Citizen.

[SNIP]

Of the Obama administration's 55 ambassadorial nominees so far, 33 -- or 60% -- have gone to people outside the foreign-service ranks, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

That ratio likely will drop as he fills more positions. Or at least we hope so.

But the main point is that in the Obama Administration, everything is for sale. Everything.

And all campaign promises come with an expiration date. All of them.