From every angle, Caroline Kennedy a good-news pick

Caroline Kennedy. Picture: AFP

Caroline Kennedy is a great choice by Joe Biden to be US ­ambassador to Australia.

She combines charisma, substance, centre-left dynastic nobility and lots of juice in the administration. She is deeply connected throughout Washington.

She is not as good for us as ­Admiral Harry Harris would have been. Harris, who from Hawaii had been the commander of all US forces in the Indo-Pacific, was initially chosen by Donald Trump to be ambassador in Canberra but then diverted to South Korea. He was the great US ambass­ador who got away.

But it’s almost never that you get someone of that seniority in the national security establishment sent to Canberra. Marshall Green, who had the formidable task of representing America here during the chaotic, dysfunctional and – on security grounds – wildly irresponsible Whitlam government, was the nearest equivalent.

Green had been assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific before he was appointed to Canberra.

Kennedy does not bring that kind of professional heft to the diplomatic role but she is a very good choice nonetheless.

The chief quality that a US ­ambassador needs is ready access to the president and the most senior levels of the administration.

Beyond that, an intimate knowledge of the vast US governmental system is important. Normally, the US ambassador in Canberra has much greater access to and influence with the innermost circles of power in Washington than does the Australian ambassador to the US. So paradoxically, while the ambassador’s job is to represent the president in Australia, it is often to represent Australia back to the president.

Kennedy is not a close personal friend of Biden but she knows him well and she was an important personal backer of his presidential bid.

Although not in any sense a national security figure, she was ambassador to Japan under Barack Obama and therefore knows the Indo-Pacific security issues pretty well. She has been socialised into the importance of US ­alliances in Asia.

At the same time, she is a moderate activist on the social issues front, which is so important to the Biden crowd. She will be an effective ambassador whether Scott Morrison wins re-election early next year or Anthony Albanese becomes prime minister.

The only big glitch is how soon she can be confirmed by the Senate. The Republicans are being as obstructionist about many of Biden’s appointments as the Democrats were about Trump’s appointments.

This is an ugly and destructive turn that American politics has taken. It is a significant weakness in the US system that so many ­appointments are delayed for so long that every new administration takes in effect 12 months to move fully into office. Nonetheless, a high-profile choice for ­Canberra by Biden is from every angle a piece of good news.