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Obama faces Hostile Response to London Appointment
By The Anglo American | February 22, 2009
The appointment of Barak Obama as US President has brought international attention to his home state of Illinois. Older policemen and policewomen in Chicago will tell you tales written into local folklore about “vote early, vote often.” 
Mayor Daley Senior did his Democratic best to mobilize the unions to vote for John F. Kennedy. And union members did vote for JFK in great numbers. And, for a small fee, they voted again.
So when the fired Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich claims he has done nothing wrong he really does believe this. It is a similar story with other senior Illinois politicians on extended visits to the State Penitentiaries. Only when confronted by the law that most Americans are happy to live by, do the blinkers get tugged back a little.
Surprisingly, during the President’s meteoric, political assent none of this toxic glue ever stuck to him. Indeed he has personally made strong case for the highest ethical standards in Washington.
However if reports in the Washington Post {22nd February 2009} are to believed, Louis Susman has the “nod”, so to speak, for the number one, London job - Ambassador.
The Washington Post article makes no reference to what everybody beyond this newspaper’s front doors can see without reading a paper - cronyism.
Louis Susman is a banker and political fund-raiser from, you guessed it - Chicago. He was so successful that he was called the vacuum cleaner, raising vast sums of money for John Kerry’s campaign. Susman also gave $300,000 to President’s Obama’s inauguration fund. Now is payback.
Of course there is nothing new in this. The retiring US London Ambassador is Bob Tuttle. But it was $200,000 he delivered into the open hands of President George Bush that turned this likable Californian car salesman into Ambassador.
Britain was clearly hoping for a career diplomat. As Sir Winston Churchill pointed out, Britain remains the conduit by which the United States conducts its business with Europe. Putting aside the accusations of cronyism, the failure to appoint a career diplomat could have considerable consequences far beyond Europe or America.
But things could have been worse for Britain. Before Caroline Kennedy tore up her chances of getting the New York Senate seat she was being feted for the London Ambassador’s job. Her Grandfather, Joe Kennedy, was US Ambassador to London at the beginning of World War 2. He advised his superiors not to back Britain. Hitler, he said, was America’s best option.
Surely it is now time for the professional diplomat.
©TheAngloAmerican
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