A Million Dollars for an Ambassador’s Seat

Washington begins preparation for Obama’s reelection

Next Tuesday U.S. President Barack Obama plans to deliver the traditional State of the Union address. It is expected that soon after this, the main architect of his electoral victory, David Axelrod, will leave the White House in order to concentrate on developing a strategy to reelect the leader. And the critics are not sitting idly by: Already they have announced the forthcoming “sale” of posts in U.S. embassies to fill the Democrats’ electoral cash box.

In the near future a number of famous faces should be leaving the White House. These are David Axelrod, who currently occupies the post of Senior Adviser to President Obama, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina. Bloomberg reports that, together with Axelrod, they will leave for Obama’s home city of Chicago in order to work on a plan to guarantee his reelection in 2012.

Axelrod, who is considered the architect of Obama’s victory in 2012, says that he is inspired by the example of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s successful campaign in November of last year. Patrick — a friend to Obama and a Democrat — was able to defend his seat, despite the complicated pre-election situation. In February of 2010, nine months before the November elections, 60 percent of registered voters in Massachusetts stated that someone else should run the state. This same opinion was still held by 52 percent of the voters in September. Unfavorable economic circumstances had pulled the governor’s ratings downward. In 2009 he was forced to raise the state’s sales tax by 25 percent against a background of the highest level of unemployment in 34 years. “I’m not interested in what’s easy. I’m interested in what’s right,” stated Patrick at celebrations of his victory.

Patrick wagered on honest conversation with the electorate, some explain of his success. Others say that the governor skillfully utilized, it would seem, insignificant but positive changes in statistics: an initial decrease in unemployment and a decline in cases of foreclosure of American homes. Similar to Obama, Patrick is a literate and coherent speaker. They even have similar slogans. “Yes, we can,” stated the first. “Together we can,” the second assured voters. Of course, Massachusetts, which is considered one of the strongholds of the Democratic Party, can hardly be compared to the entire country. But nevertheless, Axelrod plans to use the recipes of Patrick’s reelection.

Obama, judging by recent Gallup polls, really can win. This month, the president’s approval ratings again reached 50 percent (last autumn his rating fell to 41 percent). The point is in the voters’ perception of the state of the economy. According to the sociological research published yesterday by Quinnipiac University, 54 percent of respondents believe that the recovery has begun; in July of last year the same was believed by 44 percent. More good news for Obama was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement on Tuesday that next year she will support the current host of the White House.

As it usually happens, money will play an important role in the campaign. Yesterday, Washington Post columnist Al Kamen called on well-to-do people to ready their wallets to donate to the electoral cash boxes of Democrats and President Obama. He predicts that by the end of the year, wonderful ambassadorial vacancies will appear — vacancies that might be received in acknowledgment for support in the elections. The best seats supposedly will cost upwards of $1 million. “Right now, though, pickin’s are mighty slim. There are only 10 openings (in places you don’t want to go to anyway, such as Bolivia, Burma, Belarus, Sudan, etc.),” writes Kamen.

However, according to him, now there is a good possibility to get away as an ambassador to Barbados or Luxembourg, where the position has just been freed up by mega-donor Cynthia Stroum. Kamen notes that the Obama administration is lagging behind its predecessors in the number of political appointees to ambassadorial posts — they occupy 30.05 percent, and the remaining places were given to career diplomats. This figure under the preceding five presidents averaged 30.47 percent.