I remember when Reagan had ALL North European ambassadors with local language ability. ALL of THEM! Danish in Danmark - Swedish in Sweden - Norwegian in Norway - Icelandic in Iceland - Finnish in Finland. All great ambassadors who KNEW the countries and the culture of the country they worked in. I know, because I knew (and met) three of these ambassadors personally...
Then came father Bush - with political appointees and payback politics. Followed by Clinton and GWB who has been as bad as his father.
It is an INSULT to the friends of the US in these countries when presidents pay back favors and send their donors and buddies with NO diplomatic experience and NO local understanding and experience of the country to these countries as ambassadors.
I just hope that Obama is not one of THOSE presidents. I know that Hilary would do what she did when she and her husband ran the White House 8 years ago.
In the past years I have seen great career diplomats as ambassadors - and I have seen failures who were the buddies and political pay backs.
Although some paybacks have been EXCELLENT like Barbara Barrett in Helsinki, Finland