Today Obama announced a list of twelve ambassadorial appointees to foreign countries, only four of whom had held foreign-service positions before. Despite a pledge to use civil servants “wherever possible,” many of Obama’s choices were selected because of the amount of money they raised for him during the election (this is nothing new, of course). Included on the list of new foreign servants are fund-raiser Charles Rivkin, the CEO of the company that produces Yo Gabba Gabba!, who will be ambassador to France; former Citigroup vice-chairman Louis Susman, to be ambassador to the United Kingdom; and biotechnology lawyer John Roos, who will be ambassador to Japan. [ABC News]
