Fresh Start With Bolton Departure at UN

The President has an opportunity to make a fresh start with the resignation of John Bolton from the UN post. He was the wrong person, at the wrong time, with the wrong approach. He needed a Dale Carnegie Course. He basically told everyone else they had bad breath and big faults while not admitting our own. That’s not exactly the way to win friends and influence people.

This is a chance for the President to “move up” and appoint someone who can turn things around, like the replacement of Mr. Rumsfeld with Mr. Gates. We need someone with the skills and personality to forge a better relationship with the international community at a time when it can only go up.

In the past that person would be someone like former Sec. of State James Baker. I doubt he’d want this job, but we need someone like him as UN Ambassador – a realist who can talk to a diverse crowd. It was Baker who helped the first Pres. Bush assemble the broadest coalition ever assembled during the first Gulf War. Let’s hope the President picks someone of Mr. Baker’s caliber instead of another narrow ideologue who irritates people and does further damage to America's image.