How Nikki Haley got her job as UN ambassador, and a major foreign policy spokesperson for the Trump administration, is a mystery, at least to me. Her vicious personal attacks on Trump when he was a candidate should've ruled her out from the get-go. Where oh where is Trump's vaunted vindictiveness and alleged "narcissism" when we need it? Whereas Obama's appointments were characterized as a "team of rivals," Trump's may rightly be considered a team of enemies.

As Governor of South Carolina, and a member of that state's House of Representatives, Haley's foreign policy experience is absolutely nil. Nor does her degree in accounting from Clemson University inspire confidence. Her record thus far has consisted of giving voice to the neoconservative tendency in the GOP – the very people Trump defeated in the GOP primaries. The conventional Republican foreign policy clichés we've heard for years pour forth from her mouth like vomit from a drunk. Her recent speech before the American Enterprise Institute on the nuclear deal with Iran is a perfect case in point.

Haley acknowledges that Iran is complying with the terms of the deal, but that, we're told, is a mere "technical" detail. Compliance is irrelevant, she says:

"They think, 'Well, as long as Iran is meeting the limits on enriched uranium and centrifuges, then it's complying with the deal.' That's not true. This is a jigsaw puzzle."