Watching Paint Dry

I once volunteered to work with a UN conference in Istanbul Turkey a number of yeas ago where the Ambassador-set (living it up in five star accommodations, while the grunts slummed it and commuted into the conference like me staying in a small, bare bones hotel near the grand bazaar) were shaping their sustainable habitat agenda. It was some of the most dry and boring work I have ever done, despite the exotic location. Like watching paint dry, corn grow, or cars rust, it was an excruciating expense of valuable hours just to agree on one sentence in a very large document.

I can't imagine that a person of Bolton's reputation will have much of an affect on making change happen, particularly given his cavalier and crass reputation. Diplomacy is not the mark of a person who is used to getting whatever they want, when ever they want it.

Koffi Annan has a point:

"I think it is all right for one ambassador to come and push, but an ambassador always has to remember that there are 190 others who will have to be convinced - or a vast majority of them - for action to take place."KOFI ANNAN, secretary general of the United Nations, on the appointment of John Bolton by President Bush.

Here's another interesting Bolton related quote:

...this may be the first time a world superpower has used its top United Nations post as a spot for the remedial training of a troublesome government employee.