Biden appoints as US ambassadors Michelle Kwan to Belize & Caroline Kennedy to Australia

One of my SNL memories is Florida's Katherine Harris saying: I'm gonna be an ambassador! And to a good country, not one of those sad ones where they don't speak English.

lol (cackles)

Why haven't all the ambassadors been named within 4 months?? I realise the Senate will stall on approving them.

Caroline needs ANOTHER job?

...another fun job, I mean. I'm sure she's a nice person but she doesn't seem wildly.....what's the word.....talented?

R3 they have been stalling on all of them, they can't process them all at once. Ted Cruz, for example, is holding all of them up, and he's not the only one.

And she already has sun-damaged skin.

The Australian sun oughta finish her transition to alligator bag.

So has she just dropped "Schlossberg" altogether?

The name AND the husband are not welcome on this voyage.

OP. so you're saying they have as much political experience as Trump did when you voted for him in 2016?

Isn't Michelle Kwan a republican?

Caroline Kennedy is not the brightest one.

Caroline Kennedy and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were classmates and graduated together from Columbia Law School in 1988.

R12 I think she was about 15 yrs ago but switched parties circa 2010.

What horrible act did Caroline Kennedy commit to deserve banishment posting to Australia?

Australia and Belize are an unimportant posts. It's ok to send faces, not serious diplomats. Australia says how high when told to jump by the US.

This just in. Tonya Harding nominated to be Ambassador to Slovenia.

Kwan has become a major Democratic activist which is why she is getting this post/

Michelle fucking KWAN???

The Republicunt?

She has ZERO credentials.

What a fucking joke.

Grace and Jack are swooning.

Caroline does already have ambassadorial experience since she was Ambassador to Japan under Obama.

Japan, France, and the countries where English is the official or dominant language are usually considered the most prestigious appointments.

It's often a problem if you're appointed ambassador to a nation and you don't know the language. I have no idea if Caroline spoke Japanese (or if other US ambassadors to Japan like Walter Mondale did), but I would assume Michelle knows Spanish.

Poor Caroline got none of the Bouvier looks, she takes after her horse-faced Kennedy aunts.

This is a very good article about who/when people get political Ambassadorship appointments. Having worked in the Foreign Service over twenty years, I served under two political appointees. ADM Crowe held the appointment to London, and it is obvious why he was chosen being a former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.

The Ambassador to NZ, Della M. Newman, was a political friend of George HW. When she left she was sent packing. Typically, these political appointees only last the term of the current President as they as usually friends who have raised enormous sums of money for the campaign.

Usually, political appointees are only sent to English speaking countries, but there are those exceptions like Shirley Temple Black who is highly regarded by all. She was Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia and spoke several languages.

[quote] I have no idea if Caroline spoke Japanese

Let's go out on a limb and guess though....

[quote]I would assume Michelle knows Spanish.

Belize is an English-speaking country, a member of the Commonwealth and the Queen is Head of State.

I wonder if Meghan was angling for that Belize ambassadorship.

Michelle dated a Republican when she was getting a masters degree in Denver, but never said either way what political party she affiliated with until she started working with Obama/Clinton/Biden.

Supposedly Caroline Kennedy was very well liked by her staff in Japan.

Kwan was a big Hillary Clinton supporter and worked for her campaign. She’s not a Republican

Kwan graduated from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She's actually qualified.

From December 2012:

[quote]About a year and a half after moving to D.C., the former Olympian is launched on a career track, with a new job this fall at the State Department. Official title: Senior adviser for public diplomacy and public affairs.

[quote]“People say it’s a 180 for me,” Kwan told us. “But I traveled the world representing the U.S. for years.”

[quote]It’s a role she’s been transitioning into. While winding down her career as the nation’s most decorated figure skater, Kwan pursued a graduate degree at Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. In 2007, the State Department tapped her starpower by naming her a public-diplomacy envoy; other unpaid but high-profile roles followed with State’s council to promote women’s sports worldwide and the White House advisory panel on fitness.

June, 10 2015:

[quote]Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign is getting a famous new staff member.

[quote]Michelle Kwan, a former figure skater and Olympic medal winner, will work from Mrs. Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters on outreach efforts before the Clinton campaign’s formal kickoff rally on Saturday, according to campaign aides.

[quote]Ms. Kwan will bring a touch of celebrity to Mrs. Clinton’s relatively austere headquarters, where the frugality of the campaign manager, Robby Mook, is well known. Her arrival comes as Mrs. Clinton’s team hopes to add excitement to the next phase of the campaign. Ms. Kwan’s focus is said to be on directing campaign surrogates to engage voters on issues critical to working families.

[quote]Ms. Kwan worked as the United States public diplomacy envoy at the State Department when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state.

April 25, 2019:

[quote]Two-time Olympic medalist and five-time figure skating world champion Michelle Kwan has joined Joe Biden’s presidential campaign team, the campaign announced Thursday. She is expected to serve as the former vice president’s surrogate director.

[quote]Kwan worked in a similar capacity for former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign and worked before that at the State Department.

[quote]The role involves lining up allies to speak on the campaign’s behalf to the media, at rallies and other events. It requires cultivating relationships with elected officials, policy wonks and celebrities, and routing them across the country and in front of microphones and cameras.

[quote]“She comes in with a lot of relationships that maybe people on the Biden team don’t have. She knows celebrities. She’s known people at the State Department for a long time. She’s going to jell very well with the people over there,” said Adrienne Elrod, a Democratic strategist who was the Clinton campaign’s director of strategic communication and surrogates.

[quote]“And any time that we needed a last-minute surrogate to go somewhere or we needed someone with star power to go somewhere on behalf of the campaign,” Elrod said, “we could just send Michelle. That’s incredibly valuable.”

She’ll coast along doing the same shit for years until someone younger and more daring takes over.

Ambassadorships work two ways. America "rewards" its closest allies with "high profile" ambassadors. Caroline was a huge celebrity in Japan, where her parents were / are still highly regarded. I expect she will be received well in Australia.

Future DL Ambassadors:

Connie Francis to whatever country considers rape legal

Cockgobbler to Penisland

Chrissy Tiegen to Cuntstain

Oprah to the Island of Lesbo

I thought Kwan was a trump supporter?

Martina Navritilova will be Ambassador to Lesbos.

You thought wrong R38

R37 I could actually see Oprah Winfrey becoming an ambassador at some point. Maybe in Australia.

She's said in the past, that if the United States ever fell apart do to political instability and she had to leave the country and live somewhere else. She said that place would be Australia. She said thus at the very beginning of the Trump administration if I'm remembering correctly.

Oprah would make a really good Star ambassador in my opinion. I could see her buying a huge Australian estate and calling it home for a time. I feel like her becoming an ambassador would be the next best thing to her becoming the president that so many people desperately wanted from her.

Caroline Kennedy is a very wealthy woman. I remember in 2013 during her confirmation hearing for Japan. Financial disclosures showed that she was worth as much as $500 million dollars plus.

I'm sure that number has grown since.

Oh, FFS.

[Quote]"I am always grateful to the courageous Solomon Islanders and Australian coast watchers who rescued my father during World War 2, and if confirmed, I will work hard to repay this debt,"

I wonder how the diplomatic community feels about these kind of appointments. Both in terms of the country they're sent to, but also the US diplomatic service who see their own passed over for big fundraisers. I suppose the latter must be used to it by now.

Here in Britain there was a documentary series about the US embassy during the time Woody Johnson was ambassador, and I felt so sorry for his staff. They'd be highly capable and competent, and then he'd come along patronising them and repeating business mantras he probably got off a poster.

Oprah Winfrey can be Ambassador to Narnia.

The United States love celebrities. This is the homeland of Hollywood after all. The showbiz capital of the world.

So of course the celebrity obsession would extend to Washington DC.

What would America be without our celebrities?

Our politicians become celebrities in the US. You get elected, you become an instant celebrity.

You know...

Biden was once known for picking good staff. Now he seems to be abysmal at picking people for his administration. Maybe he was only good at staffing a simple little office.

Wait until we start discussing Rachael Rollins. Or did I miss that discussion?

I think that, wrinkles and all, Caroline is a very handsome woman.

Michelle Kwan has always been a democrat. People are confused because she represented the Bush administration in a role, but it was politically neutral roles that involved things like promoting participation in sports.

[quote] I wonder how the diplomatic community feels about these kind of appointments. Both in terms of the country they're sent to, but also the US diplomatic service who see their own passed over for big fundraisers. I suppose the latter must be used to it by now.

I was a member of said diplomatic community and two of my posts had political appointee ambassadors. We have found appointees who are worldly, wise and educated are received well into the fold, if they know what they are doing and have common sense. Donation appointees don't always have a clue and sometimes seem to struggle. This is why a good Deputy Chief is always around in those posts. Generally speaking, political ambassadors don't go to severely troubled nations. They usually float along the cream of society like London, Paris, Rome... all the places everyone wants to go.

The diplomatic community is filled with a bunch of elite snobs.

[quote] thought Kwan was a trump supporter?

Absolute not! She worked on the Hillary Campaign

Every stupid country has to get an ambassador. At this point they're just giving them away to anyone

The Kennedys are a toxic sore. Got us into Vietnam, almost got us into WW3, and they’re still occupying the stage. Scum.

The Kennedys are much better then the filthy Trumps.

Especially the JFK/Jackie branch of the Kennedy family.

Ambassadors are another line of work that shouldn't exist these days.

Jack and Jackie produced THAT??

R52 we are glad to hear were not considered a severely troubled country.

[quote] The diplomatic community is filled with a bunch of elite snobs.

Yes, we have to be to get along with the rest of the world.

Only Joe would send a Chinese ice skater as ambassador to a subtropical Central American nation

We don’t care about Belize, apparently,

[quote]Oprah would make a really good Star ambassador in my opinion. I could see her buying a huge Australian estate and calling it home for a time.

We don't know her.

Seriously. Her show was on during the day when most Australians are at work. There are doubtless some fraus that are fans, or were in the far-off days when she was on TV, but not only is she not an institution here, she's barely thought about at all. People watched the shit-show with Megs and Harry, of course, but thought it was a shit-show and that what she let them get away with without follow-up questioning was scandalous. She'd be most welcome to live here, but she might not enjoy the level of anonymity it provides.

Caroline K's appointment was generally well received, without generating any major public excitement. She seems conscientious.