What counrty is this? Oh by the way, I'm your new ambassador....

An editorial published by Henri J. Barkey on February 6, 2014 in the Washington Post goes to prove to Americans that "Obama’s ambassador nominees are a disservice to diplomacy".  The editor, Henri J. Barkey is a professor of international relations at Lehigh University. He served on the State Department’s policy planning staff from 1998 to 2000. In his reporting Barkey is highly concerned about the recently nominated Norwegian ambassador and rants on about the other nominees President Obama selected.  On January 16, 2014 George Tsunis, a businessman and lawyer from Long Island, NY, was confirmed by the senate and was made the future Ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway. Barkey begins his editorial by stating, “President Obama does a disservice to Norwegians, to himself and, above all, to the people of the United States by sending such an unqualified person to represent him and us in the capital of a long-standing NATO ally.” Although Barkey may come off critical of the new ambassador without giving him a chance to prove himself, it seems as though Tsunis put his “foot in his mouth” the day his great new position began. Barkey goes on to prove his point of view with incidents that happened while Tsunis’s confirmation hearings were taking place, “He was unaware of some of the most basic facts about Norway. He admitted never having set foot in the country, and he seemed to think that Norway, a monarchy, has a president. He also had no idea which political parties constituted Norway’s governing coalition, even though, as ambassador, he would be dealing with them.”  Barkey claims that the straightforward reasoning for Obama’s nomination of this incompetent ambassador was because Tsunis was a bundled contributor of $1.3 million dollars to Obama’s reelection campaign and other Democratic efforts in 2012. I feel as though Barkey does a great job logically proving to his readers that despite his lack of knowledge or qualifications, Tsunis's generous contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party have earned him the job. Even though such a practice has happened in previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, nothing has compared to this fiasco.