President Obama, please send a better one

“Over my tenure, I found the men and women in the PL as well as the PN uniformly capable, intelligent and responsive.

... I would personally find it difficult to choose among the wealth of talent presented to you. You don’t need a former American Ambassador to tell you of your blessings in the leadership department, but trust me, you are."

This public assessment has just been made by former US Ambassador to Malta Douglas Kmiec. If you edit out the reference to Malta you'd think he's describing politicians who changed the course of human history - the drafters of his country's constitution, or of the Magna Carta, or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Are PL and PN politicians 'uniformly capable, intelligent and responsive'? Should Renzo Piano vaguely model the new parliament on a treasure chest to reflect the 'wealth of talent' of the men and women who will be occupying it? Should the country really count it's blessings in 'the leadership department'?

Ambassador Kmiec sounds like he was living in a parallel universe during his stint in Malta. And he probably was. He spent so much time lecturing us on his morality that he forgot about the job he was sent to do - keeping his ear to the ground.

Thankfully, Kmiec is history. One should hope that President Barack Obama sends a bigger man or woman to match the bigger embassy he built at Ta' Qali.