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When describing her qualifications for the job, the newly confirmed U.S. ambassador to Hungary cited a "product" she helped develop that is exported to "more than 100 countries, for daily consumption with more than 40 million viewers."

The product Colleen Bradley Bell produced is the soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful.

She was confirmed yesterday by the U.S. Senate, along with Noah Bryson Mamet. In his confirmation hearing, he acknowledged he had never visited Argentina, the country where he will serve as U.S. ambassador.

The big political donor who becomes an ambassador to a relatively small country is something of a Washington punch line and also a tradition. Presidents have done this for decades. But critics say the Obama administration has taken it too far.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Bell and Mamet each raised at least $500,000 for President Obama's campaign in 2012.

At Bell's confirmation hearing, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked her about America's strategic interest in Hungary. The answer that followed could best be described as a word soup.

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"Well, we have a strategic interest," she said. "In terms of what are our key priorities, in Hungary. I think our key priorities are to, um, improve upon as I mentioned the security relationship, and also the law enforcement and to promote business opportunities, increase trade ..."

McCain wasn't impressed. He cleared his throat and asked the question again.

"It's really disgraceful," said McCain following the confirmation vote, which fell neatly along party lines.

Especially, he says, because Hungary is in a perilous state politically, teetering between the influence of Western democracies and Vladimir Putin's Russia. As for Bell's qualifications, White House press secretary Josh Earnest grasped for words at yesterday's press briefing.

"Well she certainly is somebody again, that, that is, has, has had her own distinguished private sector career," said Earnest.

According to the American Foreign Service Association, in Obama's second term a little more than 40 percent of ambassador nominees have been political rather than career diplomats. In recent past administrations the share has been less, 30 percent.

When author Kati Marton was 5 years old, growing up in Hungary, the first American she met was the U.S. ambassador. Her parents, journalists, were deemed enemies of the state and jailed, she says.

"Ambassador [Christian M.] Ravndal made a point of looking after my older sister and me who had been left as, well, political orphans," said Marton, recalling a defining moment in her childhood.

She says he visited them, pulling up in a big Buick with an American flag on the front, a deeply symbolic move in Cold War Hungary.

"The American ambassador in countries that are often forgotten by Washington can play an enormous role, a symbolic role, standing in for what America stands for," said Marton.

Marton is the widow of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and says she knows rewarding donors is part of the way Washington works.

This year the American Foreign Service Association, which represents career diplomats, came out with four simple qualifications for an ambassador.

"Relevant international experience," explains Bob Silverman, the group's president. "High-level government or other high-level policy articulation experience, good management skills. Good leadership skills."

He opted not to say whether Bell, Mamet and the other recent donor ambassadors met that standard.

Another donor-nominee still awaits confirmation. But George Tsunis faces opposition from a few Senate Democrats, which makes his confirmation to be ambassador to Norway less likely.

Updated at 11:19 a.m.

President Obama named Ashton Carter, a former No. 2 Pentagon official, as his pick to succeed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Obama described Carter today as one of the "nation's foremost national security leaders."

"He was at the table in the situation room. He was by my side navigating complex security challenges that we were confronting," Obama said. I relied on his expertise and I relied on his judgment."

Carter called the nomination an "honor and a privilege."

He said he accepted the offer because of "the seriousness of the strategic challenges we face, but also the bright opportunities that exist for America if we grab hold of them."

He said, if confirmed, he will give Obama "candid" strategic and military advice. And, in a message to the U.S. military, he said, "I pledge to keep faith with you and to serve our nation with the same unflinching dedication that you demonstrate every day."

Carter's name began to surface this week as a possible replacement for Hagel, who announced Nov. 24 that he would step down once a successor is confirmed. NPR's Eyder Peralta noted that Carter, though unknown to the public, is "regarded as having a great intellect."

He is expected to enjoy bipartisan support during the nominating process.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said earlier this week that he supports Carter "very strongly."

If confirmed, Carter will be Obama's fourth defense secretary (after Robert Gates, Leon Panetta and Hagel).

A Rhodes scholar, Carter has a doctoral degree in theoretical physics from Oxford University. He would inherit the Pentagon as the U.S. faces many global challenges, including the fight against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria, a resurgent Russia and unrest in other parts of the world. He also faces newer challenges such as cyberthreats.

Ashton Carter

Chuck Hagel

Obama

When Ronaldo Mouchawar was working in a Boston engineering firm he dreamed of moving back to the Arab world. Born and raised in Aleppo, Syria, he had come to the U.S. to study, then got a high-paying job, but he believed he "owed something" to his home region.

It turned out his ticket back was a smart idea at the right time.

He founded Souq.com in 2006 and settled in Dubai, the financial capital of the United Arab Emirates. Now he's the CEO of what's considered the most successful e-commerce site in the region. He recently raised $150 million in capital to expand. The 44-year-old entrepreneur says commerce is part of his DNA.

"I studied engineering, my dad was a really strong trader merchant, so the combo was a no-brainer for me."

Setting up a business in many Arab countries is difficult, which made business-friendly Dubai an obvious base. Internet penetration had reached 20 percent in the UAE by the time he moved there. His e-business took off a few years later when the regional cell phone revolution connected millions more to the net.

"Suddenly, you go from 30 million users to 130 million users" in the Arab world, he says in his glass-walled office in Dubai. This meant potential customers in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. "The Arab world massively embraced mobile technology. There is 70 percent penetration in the Gulf. That was prime territory for us."

A Quiet Transformation

In a region where war, political turmoil and oil prices dominate the headlines, technology quietly is transforming the Middle East, says Mouchawar. He recognized the potential early and is riding the wave. Now, Internet start-up companies in Dubai attract millions of dollars from venture capitalists who come from Silicon Valley and from the Middle East.

"For those of us who sit in the middle of it, we already feel it," says Fadi Ghandour, the founder of Aramex, a logistics company based in Amman, Jordan. He moved his operation to Dubia and spends most days listening to start-up pitches. He's now a full-time investor in a movement he believes will reshape the region.

"You can feel the crescendo," he says. "People will start to feel that energy that you saw in Tahrir Square, in Egypt," he says, referring to an Arab democracy movement that started in 2011. "This is the energy of the start-up community across the region."

Technology is embraced by the young generation in a region where 60% of the population is under 35. "Youth empowerment, this was a driver for us," says Mouchawar.

Jobs for this generation are scare. Youth unemployment is in double digits in all Arab states. Tech jobs can change the statistics by leveling the playing field for educated tech specialists in a part of the world where family connections are often the key to a decent job.

Creating A 'White Friday'

On the day I visit the offices, the workspace for hundreds of young employees is decorated with black and white balloons. The open space floor plan, with the soft clatter of keyboards and clustered meetings, has the vibe of any tech company. But it is striking to see so many young women monitoring computer screens and heading planning meetings.

The balloons?

"It's a very tough day," says Mouchawar, as he gives me a tour, "so just to make sure we have some fun."

There is an all-nighter ahead for the entire team in the countdown to the biggest shopping day of the year. It's a first for Souq.com. Think Black Friday.

Mouchawar rebranded the shopping day. He calls it "White Friday," a more fitting name for Arab culture. "We wanted to own it, to own the brand."

He explains that it makes cultural sense. In the Arab world, Friday is the traditional day of prayer. A "black" Friday doesn't work in Arabic.

In the highly competitive world of e-commerce, Mouchawar has localized and Arabized a successful business model that has already proven successful in the West.

"One of the challenges is how we Arabize millions of products, product descriptions, build a proper catalogue index, but that's our edge," he says.

He walks into the "war room" where another team is watching large computer monitors in the lead up to the start of White Friday.

"We have screens to see traffic, sales, Twitter feeds, what customers are saying," he says.

Saudi Arabia is big on Twitter but in Egypt the favored communication tool is Facebook. The team follows all the social media feeds in real time for feedback on what customers are saying about quality and price.

For Mouchawar, e-commerce is a platform that can build a new Middle East. It could create badly needed jobs for young people and boost the businesses that are the backbone of Arab economies.

"If you see where the jobs are, it's got to come from small and medium businesses," he says. E-commerce can provide distribution for these merchants for the first time and open markets across the Middle East.

"Imagine the access this merchant can have from a street in Cairo to a customer base in Saudi Arabia, to the UAE. If we can connect all these dots, you will have an incredible customer base."

He explains that the company handles the "last mile" deliveries even to places with no dependable mail service or a postal address.

Mouchawar met his goal of driving 10 million users to the website with White Friday sales, partnering with product giants including Microsoft, Apple, Samsung and Sony, to offer deep discounts. It's another step in building a brand.

The start-up culture took off in 2011, just as Egyptian protesters went to the streets of Tahrir Square in Cairo. That energy for political change has been diverted and exhausted. The tech revolution continues as the more promising Arab Spring.

Middle East

Dubai

Fast-food workers rallied around the country Thursday, calling for a minimum wage of $15 an hour. But in suburban Detroit, a small but growing fast-casual burger and chicken chain has already figured out how to pay higher wages and still be profitable.

When Moo Cluck Moo opened its first location almost two years ago, the starting pay for all workers was $12 an hour. The idea, according to co-founder Brian Parker, was to train everyone to multitask.

No one is just flipping burgers. All of the workers are expected to be jacks-of-all-trades: They bake buns from scratch daily, they house-make aioli and prepare made-to-order grass-fed burgers and free-range chicken sandwiches.

And, now, says Parker, the investment is paying off. Revenue is up at the chain's two locations. And workers are sticking around. And their pay now? It's up to $15 an hour. By comparison, a typical fast-food worker in the U.S. makes about $8 or $9 an hour.

"Because of our low turnover, and the fact that people are really into their jobs, $15 an hour wasn't a big stretch," Parker says.

Parker says there are savings in not having to constantly train new hires, and his workers are empowered because they're given so much responsibility.

The Salt

Across The Country, Fast-Food Workers Rally For $15-An-Hour Pay

When we stopped in for a visit this week, manager Dan Chavez was standing at the grill preparing a made-to-order Moo Burger. He has been cooking in restaurants for 15 years, so he knows how to move quickly from the grill to the fryer. He also oversees baking and talks to customers.

"It's more fun than I've had at other jobs, because we get to do everything ourselves," he says.

And Chavez says the higher-than-average wages are a big part of his job satisfaction.

"It feels good just to be able to pay my bills and enjoy a little of life," Chavez says.

In the beginning, Parker wasn't sure the higher wages would be sustainable. But now the restaurants are thriving. "We're ... going to show a profit in the last quarter," Parker says. And he and his partner are planning to add new locations.

Now, in order to make this model work, customers have to pay a little more.

Grass-fed Moo Burgers on a homemade bun start at about $6. This compares to a Big Mac, which retails in the U.S. for about $4.80. That's a price differential of just over a dollar.

In starting the company, the founders say, they were motivated by the lack of options. "We couldn't find an affordable place to take our kids and grandkids that didn't have hormones, preservatives," they write on the company's website.

They now vet their suppliers to make sure all the food they buy meets their specifications, and they source their beef from Joseph Decuis Wagyu Farm in Indiana.

"We're building a brand," Parker says. And part of getting Moo Cluck Moo out there is telling people about its sourcing of beef and chicken, and talking about its commitment to paying people a living wage.

"I'm not driving around in a six-figure sports car," Parker says. But he does have his eye on the future.

So are small burger chains like Moo Cluck Moo — which are willing to pay workers more and serve more upscale menus — going to put pressure on the giants such as McDonald's and Burger King to raise wages?

"No, I don't think so," says Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

Strain says there are two different models here, and two different kinds of customers. These new chains appeal to people who are willing to pay more for food prepared from scratch. But, he says, traditional fast-food chains are not going to go away.

"McDonald's appeals to people who like the Dollar Menu, and to people for whom that price point is appealing," he says.

And McDonald's will likely continue to offer its Dollar Menu, and other value pricing, as long as it can find people who are willing to work for the kind of wages it currently offers.

But if workers become too expensive, Strain argues, we'll start to see more automation — and fewer fast-food jobs.

"Imagine if some machine gets invented that can operate the french fry machine at McDonald's, " Strain says. That's one less worker needed at the fryer.

This automation has been happening for a while, Strain says. When he was a kid, it was a person — not a soda machine — that filled his cup.

fast food workers