The Times reports that Caroline Kennedy will likely be appointed by President Obama to be the next ambassador to Japan. Political appointments are one of the many perks of the presidency. They can reward their campaign supporters and fundraisers with this honor and responsibility. Apparently, Anna Wintour, the evil editor of Vogue, was really pissed off that Obama didn't make her the English ambassador, even though she threw him star-studded parties when he was running for office.
But political appointments suck. Behind the appointee is an army of loyal workers who stick around for ages, who actually know how the job works, and who have to suck up to trust-fund rich people. Yuck.
When I worked at a policy institute in Manhattan, we were hired to document a major transition in the probation department for the city. The guy who was running the agency was a real wonk, who wanted to monitor the change. While he may have had good intentions, he was also mayoral appointee with no experience in the probation department. His workers hated that an outsider was telling them how to do their job. They made the motions to make changes in operations, but they knew that this guy would be onto a new job in a year and all they had to do was bide their time.
Political appointees are bad for business and bad for morale.