As dense as granite

Okay while there's a certain measure of truth to this editorial, appointing someone who seems to be the anti-thesis of the title (being a diplomat seems to indicate that you can be diplomatic and not piss people off every time you open your mouth) doesn't strike me as particularily effective.

He has some interesting points. However I very nearly couldn't wade through his Democrat bashing to isolate them. All the problems could very well be true but I don't think, particularly after our unilateral action in Iraq, that appointing someone who will tell them bluntly that they've "fucked up" will help fix the problems. Attention will be instead focused (just like now) more on counterattacking him. Which very well could be the neocon's objective (UN lack of action/effectiveness provides all kinds of justification for unilateral international actions which support their goal of lining their own defense industry subsidized pockets). Very similar to cutting education funding so that people are less able to see through their transparent propaganda.

Whoa, I'm definately starting to sound conspiracy theorist here.