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In an opinion piece on CNN, Associate Professor of Government Jennifer Lind notes the complaint from critics that Caroline Kennedy, President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. ambassadorship to Japan, “lacks the political or regional chops needed by an ambassador at such an important post.”

Lind points out that the job requirements include being able to navigate the Washington, D.C., policy-making process and being able to relate well to the people of one’s host land.

And Kennedy, Lind writes, “actually looks pretty good on both counts.”

Not only that, says Lind, but Kennedy has “the most precious policy-making asset of all: the president’s ear.”

Read the full opinion piece, published 7/25/13 by CNN.