Obama’s man in London needs to stop bashing Bush, immerse himself in domestic political discourse, and get out and meet some true Brits, says Irwin Stelzer
‘He is not even a diplomat,’ sniffed BBC News when Louis Susman took up his post as America’s ambassador to the Court of St James. An Obama Chicago crony, the Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill rushed to point out from his perch in Washington — ‘a little bit of Chicago’s ruthless and combative political machine is soon to descend on the decorous calm of the Court of St James’.
Because Susman had donated some $200,000 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and hoovered up so much more campaign cash — an estimated $1 million — that he earned the title of ‘vacuum cleaner’, the chairman of the American Academy of Diplomacy, lifelong professional diplomat Thomas Pickering, told the BBC that the appointment smacks of ‘simony’, the ecclesiastical crime of paying for holy offices or positions in the hierarchy.
Never mind that Susman’s predecessor, Robert Tuttle, was also appointed in part because he had raised a bushel of money, in his case for George W. Bush, and that lack of diplomatic experience did not prevent him from becoming one of our most successful ambassadors in recent times — times that were not easy ones for a Bush representative in Britain. As with Susman, the British elite professed horror at Tuttle’s appointment: a man who is a major and highly discerning collector of modern art, and member of the board of Ford Motor Company, was repeatedly referred to as a used-car salesman.
It is certainly understandable that professional foreign service officers resent the appointment of someone to a prime post who has not done his or her time rising through the ranks of the Foreign Office or State Department bureaucracy.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in