Fresh from a European vacation, Al Kamen is back at it today with a column on the fact that President Obama has been naming campaign donors to desirable ambassadorships in some of the most important and sensitive overseas posts.

"Despite some early signals that merit -- knowledge of the local language, culture or region, or perhaps foreign policy experience -- might play a role in determining who gets those jobs, big donors and bundlers seem to have grabbed the lion's share of the most coveted spots," Kamen writes today.

Though Obama will likely fill about 30 percent of envoy positions with political appointees (the rest going to Foreign Service veterans), "a comparison of Obama's early picks with President Clinton's...indicates substantial differences between the two Democrats."

As Kamen points out (and is represented in the graphic below by Kamen and The Post's Karen Yourish), Clinton tended to pick people with experience in public policy for the important embassies. Big donors got jobs in smaller countries in eastern or northern Europe "where they could do little lasting harm," Kamen notes.

Obama has done things differently:

By Ed O'Keefe  |  June 10, 2009; 12:52 PM ET
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