Defense Secretary?

[karynnj]

18. For what is it worth, the same WP just a few day's ago, said Kerry was a no go because Reid

wants him in the Senate. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/11/09/harry-reid-could-keep-john-kerry-from-secretary-of-state/

There are so many reasons why this seems more an effort to argue Rice for SOS.

1) Many articles - including the BG - mentioned that there were 2 "jobs Kerry always wanted" and they did not feel the need to explain that they were President and SOS. (In fact, Kerry himself has spoken of a third job that he loves - that is being Senator and Chair of SFRC.)

2) There are many who might feel that Obama is attacking the military by choosing someone who many on the right believe the smear that he attacked soldiers in 1971, though nothing is further from the truth.

3) If Obama has an ambiguous agenda of changing the military and ending the wars, he could best do this with a SOD who the military embraces wholeheartedly.

This may suggest that, in fact, Reid is NOT speaking against it. This makes sense given the Senate count and the likelihood that a great MA candidate could run against Brown's record - that he refused to speak about in the race with Warren.

Note that this is also written with the hypothesis that Susan Rice will be picked listed as a foregone conclusion. It may well be that Obama (or others on the foreign policy team) prefer Rice. It might even be that they (not Obama) realize that Kerry will be a bigger force on the team and their vested interest is for a weaker member of the team.

I think taking any cabinet position has one down side for Kerry. I think he likes things like town halls, meeting people and the political life. However, even as a young man he was fascinated by diplomacy and has demonstrated that he is very good at it. The NYT magazine last fall had a long article on Kerry that shows his genuine, innate diplomatic skill. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/magazine/john-kerry-our-man-in-kabul.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Kerry has been honest in saying that he did want to be SOS in 2008 when he could have denied it. I think Susan Rice would be a good choice, but I hate that many people pushing her have tried to make the argument by suggesting that the choice of Kerry is a bad one.