It is high time for you to leave Cathy Ashton alone (“Out of the Limelight,” February 5, 2011). As the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, she is doing a good job. In your words, she has won many admirers, not least for her perseverance. “She studies her briefs,” you report, “she chairs meetings effectively, and she is strong on personal rapport.” Admirable, this. To top it all, she has the best of relations with Hilary Clinton, her restless American counterpart. Coordinating foreign ministers of twenty-seven countries in the Union is far from a mean feat, either. Plucked from obscurity for the lofty job, the British baroness is doing well for one more reason, which seems to escape you entirely. That is, the Union is not what you appear to believe it is. It itself is out of the limelight. Perhaps for ever, too. The Union’s foreign-policy chief is thus doing a great job, indeed. In fact, her obscurity and that of the Union match perfectly.