Biden To Tap Cindy McCain For Ambassadorship

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#168

I assume you would also agree that the loss you posit is “not by any means a sure thing.” It will surely depend on her performance in the job, unless you believe that her appointment in and of itself is a serious blow to the WFP. I don’t see much support for that.

If you fear immediate negative effect because McCain is a non-entity, I think you can relax. She is far from a non-entity under any normal meaning of the term. She is well known around the world, has experience in relief work, and will have good access to Biden (who wants her on his side in 2022 and 2024).

Anyway, I’m all for weighing gain and loss. We just see the scale differently. Time will tell.

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#169

I’ll take the candid admission that the difference is close to zero. Thanks.

I disagree with you about the importance of this WFP appointment.

  1. The World Food Programme does important work, as recognized just a few months ago by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

  2. I’ve already noted that Obama’s appointees to this post were both qualified – and there was a reason for that. Notice that one of his appointees went on to serve as the WFP’s Executive Director. Not even the most feckless ardent “defenders” of Ms. McCain’s appointment can picture her doing anything of this sort.

  3. Look at the current “food appointees” from other leading countries. They do not resemble Cindy McCain in the slightest. For example, Qu Dongyu, the Chinese head of the FAO, also a UN agency based in Rome, is a biologist with a Ph. D. in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and in his home country used to be vice minister of agriculture. If we are to lead at the UN, Ms. McCain is an unimpressive choice.

I could go on but you get the gist.

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#170

It’s not a blow to the WFP.

It’s a blow to our role in it.

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#171

Her peers on the WFP might find a PR use for a celebrity appointee. :slightly_smiling_face:

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#172

OK, that’s by far the best defense I’ve seen of this lousy idea!

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#173

Well, that’s a relief. You had me worried about the WPF for a while there.

Now that you express it as a trade-off between internal and external politics I’m more sanguine. I think we’re going to be on an upward trajectory internationally under Biden. I’m much more concerned about the politics here at home.

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#174

This is the most positive and lengthy defense I have made of a rich parasite, ever.
I’m done.

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#175

So here’s a thought: Instead of paying Ms. McCain back by sending her where she’d be conspicuously unqualified, how about bribing a different Arizona personality?

Ask Senator Sinema which of her donors she’d like to pay off with this appointment and then grant her wish in exchange for some pro-team behavior in the Senate.

That would do a hell of a lot more good for “politics here at home.”

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#176

I don’t want to doubt the sincerity of your concerns, but that comment sounds much more like someone who is implacably anti-McCain than it does someone who is strongly pro-World Food Programme.

Doubtful, for three reasons: it’s as unlikely as it sounds; Sinema counts little without Manchin; and bribing her probably won’t help keep Kelly in the senate or sway the state races.

#177

Not sure how you reach this conclusion.

My suggestion was not my preferred solution. It was purely a response to this:

#178

If she was a fraggle she’d be Boober McCain.

#179

Is an ambassadorship really an appropriate “participation trophy” for a Republican, Biden?

#180

What’s the over/under on how many gop votes she gets to confirm?

#181

I understand you would prefer a different course entirely. But that ship appears to have sailed.

It did, however, seem pretty clear that, given the current circumstances, you would prefer Biden appoint some random donor of Sinema’s instead of appointing McCain. Your suggestion was:

The idea that Sinema would make a meaningful difference in the senate in return for this “bribe” is pretty farfetched. Unless you believe that any random donor would be more qualified than McCain – a difficult proposition – then this seems to be more about pushing McCain out than putting a qualified person at the WFP.

#182

Yes, I too see a fraggle. Keen observation I must say.

#183

To you.

I’m out. You have a great evening.

#184

For the sake of our 2022 races here in Arizona, I’m hoping the Dems vote as a block in support and the GOP fragments.

I’m also hoping that some of the GOP candidates here in Arizona (governor, senate) will come out strongly against her. (Paul Gosar is considering running for governor, and I think he would bash her.)

It won’t gain them any votes, and it might offend some of the old-line republicans.

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#185

I just meant in her Senate confirmation vote. Something like this should be 100 to 0, but it won’t.

#186

hawkish husband ran a racist campaign for the presidency in 2008 that enabled and riled up the exact same sort of people who voted Trump into the presidency eight years later.

I was stunned at McCain’s studied rudeness, stalking and making faces during the debates with Obama. Ugh. Take a look at the video.

#187

Waaaa-aaaayyyyyyy too much.
One of the most appropriate uses of that line I can recall, and I loved the book well before the movie was in production.

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