When it should be all performance.
Well.......one CAN make full colonel based on performance, sufficient command time, required schools, etc. As long there isn’t an unresolved EO or IG complaint, it can be done and the main obstacle is finding an O-6 slot to be promoted into.
But since all promotions to flag or general officer require Senate confirmation, it indeed becomes political at those grades.
My Dad knew this. He spent the last fifteen years of his career as a colonel with a stack of Legion of Merit awards in lieu of promotion. Dad once gave Sen. Edward Kennedy a piece of his mind for denigrating in committee the character of his boss, a USAF LTG (I heard all this third hand). Kennedy later hissed to the Secy Army, “no gawddamn chicken colonel talks to ME like that and gets away with it!!”
Explains why most dictators have the rank of Colonel. Have to get rid of the generals first.
Colonel Obama...