Access is all that matters

A lot has been written about Donald Trump's choice for the next ambassador to represent the United States in Greece. His selection says a lot about where America is heading, what the new standards are and how people are selected to fill top posts. In the previous phase, you risked being left out of the running for being a man and white; now you are chosen for being a crony, and that's it.

This is America today and we might as well get used to it. There will be no ambassadors like Monty Stearns, Nicholas Burns, Daniel Smith, Geoffrey Pyatt etc, not just because such people are few and far between nowadays, but mainly because they have no place under Trump. But even if people of their caliber were around, they would never come to Athens. That post has gone from the category of embassies that were helmed by career diplomats to those that are used by the White House to make...