So You Want to Be a Diplomat? CEOs Need Not Apply by Suzanne Maloney, Wall Street Journal
Washington’s chattering classes are aghast that Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson is reportedly the leading choice to be President-elect Trump’s secretary of state. Having worked at both Exxon Mobil and the State Department, I’d suggest that these objections say more about D.C. insularity than about Mr. Tillerson’s suitability for the post. Specifically, they reflect political intellectuals’ unfamiliarity with—and more than a hint of underlying contempt toward—America’s traditional private sector.
It’s not that politicians and pundits are averse to making money. They’re quite fond of it, particularly when it comes via strategic consultancies, private-equity firms, and the litany of LLCs that welcome émigrés from the halls of government. It has become a rite of passage for former secretaries of state and other national-security officials to embark on post-government corporate careers.
No one questions whether policy expertise is directly relevant to big business. But to contemplate the converse, such as naming an oil executive as secretary of state, is considered “surreal” (Slate) and “shocking” (Bloomberg). Journalist Steve Coll, who wrote a book on Exxon Mobil, grudgingly acknowledges in the New Yorker that Mr. Tillerson “comes across as sophisticated.” But Mr. Coll goes on to scoff that “his life is rooted in environments that are fundamentally nostalgic for imagined midcentury virtues.” For instance, he has “directed substantial time and charitable activity toward the Boy Scouts.” Quelle horreur…