Who is Robin Bernstein, the appointed US ambassador to DRt

DR Solar

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https://dominicantoday.com/dr/local...n-to-be-envoy-to-dominican-republic-wpbf-com/

Florida woman to be envoy to Dominican Republic: wpbf.com

Santo Domingo.-  US president Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will nominate Robin Bernstein to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic, wpbf.com reports.
“Bernstein has served as President and Director of Richard S. Bernstein and Associates, Inc. since 2004, and Vice President and Director of Rizbur, Inc. since 2002, according to the White House press release,” the outlet reports, quoting a statement.
The release, according to wpbf.com, adds that Bernstein is cofounder of Palm Beach Country Cares, a Florida relief effort for victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.


I think that this is the same person that was announced back in Feb. but still has not been confirmed or maybe not even brought to a vote yet? I wonder how much time she would actually be living in the D.R. vs jetting back and forth to her home around Mar a Lago? I have not seen anything about her relief efforts and believe me, my wife and I pay a lot of attention to the efforts and situation in P.R.

(guess I'll google now)
 

Dolores1

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Who is Robin Berstein, the appointed US ambassador to DR

From DR1 Daily News - Thursday, 2 November 2017:


Trump chooses experienced business consultant for US Ambassador to DR
On 1 November 2017, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Robin Bernstein to be Ambassador of the United States of America to the Dominican Republic. She would be a political appointee, as her predecessor James Brewster. Her background does not show diplomatic experience.

In more recent years, Bernstein has served as president and director of Richard S. Bernstein and Associates, Inc., an insurance group, she owns with her husband in West Palm Beach, Florida. She has also been vice president and director of Rizbur Inc., a leading West Palm Beach business consulting service.

The World Affairs Palm Beach website describes Berstein as a successful political and business strategist. Past clients of Rizbur Consulting have included Donald Trump, Governor Bob Graham, Congressmen Harry Johnston, Robert Wexler and Mark Foley, Judge Richard Wennet, City councilwoman Annie Delgado, Mayor Jack Macdonald, Palm Beach Town Councilman Norman Goldblum and Town Councilwoman Penney Townsend, and County Commissioner Ken Spillias among many others. Her business clients include Westco Development, Citizens for Mizner Park, Greenpark Management, Boca Raton CRA and Artist Laurance Rassin.

She is one of the 25 founding member of Trump's exclusive Mar-a-Lago 118-room private club in Palm Beach, Florida. She is an advisory board member of the World Affairs Council of Palm Beach, Inc.

The White House reported that currently, Bernstein is co-founder of Palm Beach Country Cares, a Florida relief effort for victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Bernstein received her BA in Russian Area Studies and International Studies from the 
School of international Service in Washington, D.C. She began her political career 
there as an intern and then staff member for the Committee to Elect Scoop 
Jackson President. Shortly thereafter, she worked briefly on the Presidential 
Campaign for Hubert H. Humphrey and then as a staff member of the Joint 
Economic Committee of Congress. She received a Presidential appointment from 
President Jimmy Carter to the US Department of Commerce, Office of the 
Assistant Secretary for Policy, after serving as a member of President-elect 
Carter’s Transition Team.

She received her MBA in Economics and Strategic Planning from George Washington University in 1981. Shortly afterwards, she moved to Florida and joined the campaign to elect Ken Spillias to the Palm Beach County commission. She joined Commissioner Spillias as an administrative assistant and 
afterwards created her own political consulting business.

The appointment of Bernstein had first been mentioned in February 2017.

Since 1984 she has been married to Richard Bernstein. Together they have three daughters, Ariel, Alexandra and Julia and currently live in Palm Beach, 
Florida.
 

Juan Bosch

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Dec 8, 2015
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New US Ambassador to DR

Some months back there were rumors that Robin Bernstein was Trumps pick for US ambassador to the DR....now its a fact...
what I don't get is how by announcing she "speaks French and basic Spanish” is somehow bragging???...former Ambassador Brewster's knowledge of Spanish was very rudimentary at best if at all.... btw for the record I'm not a Trump fan...:cool:


Read more: http://forward.com/fast-forward/386...lic-ambassador-robin-bernstein-basic-spanish/
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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Can’t be worse than Wally 

i agree. as we all were told in these pages, Wally was made Ambassador because he was active in campaigning for Obama during the election cycles.

crap!! i missed this...this lady is a member of Trump's exclusive 200,000 per year Mar A Lago club.

who knew....
 

bienamor

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Whats the big deal over her appointment? No different than Brewster a political appointee. God you would think from comments that this was something new.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...se-americas-diplomats/?utm_term=.fba914f6cc68

A president picking someone with little or no foreign or diplomatic experience to be an ambassador is not unusual, though. In fact, it’s a largely accepted norm in the United States — although few other countries follow suit.


Over the past few decades, about 30 percent of all ambassadors have been “political” nominees, according to information from the American Foreign Service Association. The other 70 percent were career diplomats who worked their way up through the Foreign Service.

Although many political appointees may be chosen because of their suitability for the job, there is also a questionable but long-standing tradition of awarding ambassadorships to campaign donors or bundlers, too. President Richard M. Nixon can be heard telling his White House chief of staff, in a 1971 recording released decades later as part of the “Nixon Tapes,” that “anybody who wants to be an ambassador must at least give $250,000.”

Sometimes these appointees do not necessarily seem qualified for the job. When President Obama nominated hotel magnate and campaign bundler George Tsunis to become U.S. ambassador to Norway in 2014, Tsunis was publicly grilled about his knowledge, or lack thereof, of the nation by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). His response, one Norwegian outlet said, was “faltering, incoherent.”


Tsunis’s bid to become ambassador to Norway eventually failed, but most political nominees make it through. Many perform without incident during their few years in the job, but some do not. Cynthia Stroum, who served as the ambassador to Luxembourg between 2009 and 2011 after being a major Obama donor, was later accused by officials from the State Department’s Inspector General’s Office of bringing “major elements of Embassy Luxembourg to a state of dysfunction” with her confrontational management style, among other problems.

Supporters of the system suggest that political appointees may have close ties to the president, gaining them stature with their hosts, or they may simply be particularly competent. Investment banker Felix Rohatyn was named ambassador to France by President Bill Clinton in 1997. By the time he left in 2000, he had an enviable reputation as an expert in French politics and was a valuable asset for Washington. “He probably knew as many people in Paris as he did in New York,” Henri Barkey, a former State Department official, later wrote for The Washington Post.

What’s certainly true is that political appointees tend to be sent to the more comfortable postings — Western or Northern Europe, for example, or the Caribbean. Career diplomats, on the other hand, often end up in more obscure places. No political appointee has ever been nominated to a position in Central Asia, perhaps unsurprisingly
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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Whats the big deal over her appointment? No different than Brewster a political appointee. God you would think from comments that this was something new.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...se-americas-diplomats/?utm_term=.fba914f6cc68

A president picking someone with little or no foreign or diplomatic experience to be an ambassador is not unusual, though. In fact, it’s a largely accepted norm in the United States — although few other countries follow suit.


Over the past few decades, about 30 percent of all ambassadors have been “political” nominees, according to information from the American Foreign Service Association. The other 70 percent were career diplomats who worked their way up through the Foreign Service.

Although many political appointees may be chosen because of their suitability for the job, there is also a questionable but long-standing tradition of awarding ambassadorships to campaign donors or bundlers, too. President Richard M. Nixon can be heard telling his White House chief of staff, in a 1971 recording released decades later as part of the “Nixon Tapes,” that “anybody who wants to be an ambassador must at least give $250,000.”

Sometimes these appointees do not necessarily seem qualified for the job. When President Obama nominated hotel magnate and campaign bundler George Tsunis to become U.S. ambassador to Norway in 2014, Tsunis was publicly grilled about his knowledge, or lack thereof, of the nation by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). His response, one Norwegian outlet said, was “faltering, incoherent.”


Tsunis’s bid to become ambassador to Norway eventually failed, but most political nominees make it through. Many perform without incident during their few years in the job, but some do not. Cynthia Stroum, who served as the ambassador to Luxembourg between 2009 and 2011 after being a major Obama donor, was later accused by officials from the State Department’s Inspector General’s Office of bringing “major elements of Embassy Luxembourg to a state of dysfunction” with her confrontational management style, among other problems.

Supporters of the system suggest that political appointees may have close ties to the president, gaining them stature with their hosts, or they may simply be particularly competent. Investment banker Felix Rohatyn was named ambassador to France by President Bill Clinton in 1997. By the time he left in 2000, he had an enviable reputation as an expert in French politics and was a valuable asset for Washington. “He probably knew as many people in Paris as he did in New York,” Henri Barkey, a former State Department official, later wrote for The Washington Post.

What’s certainly true is that political appointees tend to be sent to the more comfortable postings — Western or Northern Europe, for example, or the Caribbean. Career diplomats, on the other hand, often end up in more obscure places. No political appointee has ever been nominated to a position in Central Asia, perhaps unsurprisingly

you are absolutely right, bienamor. what you have posted is absolute gospel. that is why i wondered why some guy here made a big issue about Obama picking Wally because of his fund raising help, as if it was out of the ordinary.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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https://dominicantoday.com/dr/local...n-to-be-envoy-to-dominican-republic-wpbf-com/

Florida woman to be envoy to Dominican Republic: wpbf.com

Santo Domingo.-  US president Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will nominate Robin Bernstein to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic, wpbf.com reports.
“Bernstein has served as President and Director of Richard S. Bernstein and Associates, Inc. since 2004, and Vice President and Director of Rizbur, Inc. since 2002, according to the White House press release,” the outlet reports, quoting a statement.
The release, according to wpbf.com, adds that Bernstein is cofounder of Palm Beach Country Cares, a Florida relief effort for victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.


I think that this is the same person that was announced back in Feb. but still has not been confirmed or maybe not even brought to a vote yet? I wonder how much time she would actually be living in the D.R. vs jetting back and forth to her home around Mar a Lago? I have not seen anything about her relief efforts and believe me, my wife and I pay a lot of attention to the efforts and situation in P.R.

(guess I'll google now)
I'm sure there's a select group of sankies that are already polishing their trade to see if they can make her stay in the country for the entirety of her appointmentship. It could create marital problems, but...
 

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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elizabetheames.blogspot.com
Unlike nations such as the UK - which staff their Embassies from their trained Diplomatic Corps - the United States has always used private citizens and awarded the appointments as perks for support of presidential candidates... Often the size of the purse of the candidates is very important since there is very little $$ allotted to support the various diplomatic parties etc and in such important posts as London, Paris, Tokyo, - those posts - require people of substantial private means.

It is absolutely a rule that the President gets to pick the Ambassadors - it is one of the political perks of the job that goes along with the post of President.

Nothing unusual about this appointment
nor the ones under Obama - which were, i thought, particularly irritating to the host nation... I thought Wally Brewster to be a very difficult choice - but given that the Holy See was sending pedophile Papal Nuncios - I suppose it was tit for tat.
 

Hector L

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Jun 11, 2010
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Wally did much good for the DR.   He convinced many US companies or organizations to invest or donate large sums of money for the country.
 

j&t's future

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Wally did much good for the DR.   He convinced many US companies or organizations to invest or donate large sums of money for the country.

His appointment to the Dominican Republic under the Obama administration was a disgrace and an insult to the people here.

He did NOTHING positive whilst here.
 

Dolores1

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More on Robin Bernstein...

The White House statement says she speaks "basic Spanish". A US ambassador not speaking Spanish would not be a first for the DR. As stated, her predecessor was not fluent in Spanish.

Moving up from basic Spanish for someone who has lived in Florida and is fluent in French should not be difficult. What is impressive is that she is fluent in Russian, according to a recent story in the Miami New Times.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/t...lic-ambassador-has-only-basic-spanish-9797614
 

william webster

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Jan 16, 2009
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She has a bit of an education.... by the resume.

If you can master a few languages - another one shouldn't be difficult
As you have said, Dolores.....
 

SKY

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Apr 11, 2004
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The only time the US cared anything about the DR was when Trujillo was in charge. Google his White House trips and see for yourself.