Obama Will Name John Kerry as Secretary of State

According to several media reports

Looks like President Obama will name John Kerry, D-Mass., as the next secretary of state to replace Hillary Clinton.

Kerry, who is chair of the Senate's foreign relations committee, was believed to be Clinton's first choice to succeed her in the role. The White House has not yet confirmed the report today from the Chicago Sun-Times.

Kerry seems to be an appealing pick as secretary of state to those on both sides of the aisle. He is known to be cautious about war. As head of the Senate foreign relations committee, Kerry has traveled the globe for the Obama administration working on improving international relationships. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently told CNN that Kerry would be a "popular choice with the Senate."

This may in part be because he would leave an open seat in the Senate. A special election would be held and Republican Scott Brown, who lost the Senate race to Elizabeth Warren in the November election, may run to fill Kerry's seat, the New York Daily News said.

Kerry became the frontrunner after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who many thought was favored by President Obama for the role, removed herself Thursday from the list of candidates. She said she wanted to avoid a contentious approval process. Republican critics vowed to fight her selection, over complaints of how she handled the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Via the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Daily News, and CNN

Would you be happy with Kerry as Secretary of State?

[Zazziness]

We're going to bore our potential enemies to death. Interesting.

[Denizen_Kate]

Maybe that's a good idea?

[marine1]

That's not what I call raising the bar for trustworthiness

[bsking]

"youuuuuu ...rang"

[PoliticalSpice]

@Denizen_Kate nothing would deter head of a rouge state more then the idea of having to sit in negotiations with him. I still get a headache if I think of his presidential run! I picture Achmenajad, in teran, pacing the floor at the thought "if these mullahs don't stop this nuclear weapon thing I have to sit on meetings with him? How do I get out of this? I'll have to just end negotiations and start a war"

[paperdragons81]

NO

[MBernard]

The only reason any senate republican support Kerry for Secretary of State is bc they want his senate seat. That's it.

[CanisCanemEdit]

Anti-American. Anti-Military. Tax Dodging on his yacht. Intern Scandal. Insider trading scandal. Involved in the Petraeus affair.

Not my cup of tea.

[Calfkiller]

Helluva lot better than that Rice idiot.

[srs606791163]

White man is always better than brown woman to Republicans.

[Fishbone345]

@srs606791163 A white man that is likely in the most liberal grouping of Democrats. Do you even think before you post?

[Calfkiller]

Who did you think they were going to pick? Rand Paul? your not still sore that I pointed out the stupidity of your argument about CNN and MSNBC are you? or am I just being partisan again?

[FFX_VA]

@srs606791163 I forget, what did that Republican Condi Rice look like? And why the hell does that matter?

[srs606791163]

@Fishbone345 OK I am way more liberal than John Kerry. That is another topic. I was only pointing out how offensive the original post was.

[UnCommonBoston]

I am from Massachusetts and Liberal, but not a Kerry fan. We need someone who thinks through an issue carefully, finds out all the facts before making a decision and then sticks to the solution. Wishy-washy is just wrong.

I am not a Scott Brown fan either, I followed his voting record and wasn't pleased. I wrote him to explain my feelings and got long political positioning statements echoing his party's stance. He votes with his party 2/3 of the time and is not the independent he claimed during his campaign.

This is a lose/lose. Historically we have had some awesome Sec of States, yes and some lousy ones too. Often they don't come from the senate.

[Dan_Tien]

Will there be no effort to swift boat him out of this position?

[Fishbone345]

Ha. Flashbacks. Good one.

[Fishbone345]

Kerry brings the experience of the military to the table at the very least. I can't understand how you can have a position which clearly would benefit from it, and candidates whom never served a day.

[Denizen_Kate]

I would think that's so in the case of the Secretary of Defense, but is a military background required for a position that is more about diplomacy? Couldn't hurt, I guess, but necessary? I don't agree.

[Airtime]

@Denizen_Kate

[Airtime]

@Denizen_Kate you do not need a military back ground be Secretary of state or Defense Secretary. Thats the job of the joint chief of staff to inform them of Military ideas against other countries.

[PoliticalSpice]

If the u.s. continues to foolishly use the miltitary to solve problems the way it has been doing for the past 12 years pretty soon you will need a military background to serve as secretary of agriculture...

[Fishbone345]

@PoliticalSpice actually the military is hardly the reason for stupid campaigns Spicy. The Generals advised for more boots on ground in Iraq and a shorter campaign there. They were shot down by Rumsfeild. The politicians didn't listen about Afghanistan either. In fact they hardly if ever do.

[ACTSmom]

I didn't want Rice after the Benghazi affair. But...Kerry? I honestly don't even have an opinion except we could do worse. Thank God nobody considers Harry Reid...

[PoliticalSpice]

Harry reid is somewhat effective, so obama won't give him up, he apparently isn't worried about replacing kerry with brown who is a moderate enough republican to be closer to obamas preference then many democrats...

[Jeff_Woehrle]

Hey, John Kerry...you're being nominated! Why the long face?:-)

[bsking]

someone "pro"american military would be better.

[Kptpredsfan]

I have yet to see anyone explain to me why you need to be in the military to be SecState. SecDef makes sense, but come one SecState is supposed to settle things WITHOUT the military being involved. Diplomacy i think is what it is called..........

[FFX_VA]

Ok, is there really no other choices? No one? Nadie?

[Antiecm]

I am curious did they ever take the Swift Boat Zero off the NVA wall of accomplishments.

You would think the country has already spoken on Kerry. But have it any way you want. Me I am just waiting for all hell to break out so at least the evening news will be interesting.

And this is in keeping with Obama communistic ways.

[NormalFlora]

Samuel L Jackson would be the ultimate choice. "Did we INTEND to drop that hellfire on that Imam? F#}k yes, I hope he burns in hell!!!!"

[Keyjo]

Yeah, I think Kerry would be a good choice. But I hate to see his Senate seat go vacant and likely to go to a Republican.
But it is what it is, right? Whatever is best for the Nation.

[Vance1]

"SwiftBoater" Kerry as Secretary of State
Will he toss more Vets under the bus?

[jessejaymes]

I don't care for Susan Rice. She looks unclean when I see photos or clips. Like she just crawled out of bed. I don't think that's the image we need our SOS to present. Hilary Clinton is far too liberal for my taste and not a raving beauty to be sure but with Hilary you know she is going to be tough as nails in whatever she does. With Rice, after the Benghazi fiasco I wonder. I don't fault her for being wrong. I fault her for allowing others to manipulate what she said and I don't think Hilary would ever allow herself to be boxed in like Rice did.

For those liberals who will find a way to make my statement into a racist attack, I say this. I think Condaleeza Rice is a right wing toad that should be in prison with Bush. Cheney, Rumsfeld and others. But she did present a neat and tidy appearance. Susan Rice looks like the end of five miles of bad road. She makes too much money to present that kind of appearance.

[Sonny]

"She looks unclean"?!?! Have you taken a close look at MOST of our national political leaders?!?! Boehner looks like some guy you would meet in a dark back alley and buy some illegal merchandise or drug from. Mitch McConell looks like "humpty-dumpty" on crack. Eric Canter...Looks like some malignant dwarf. Ben Bernanke, looks like he is going to break out and start singing..."hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to work I go"...at anytime now!---Supreme Ct. Justice Scalia---looks like he's been constipated for a month. Nancy Palosi looks like someone pasted her face on with crazy glue. And that's just to name a few.....

If you start picking & choosing our leaders based upon the way they "look"...Then god really help us then... I suppose Robert Redford probably does look like a nice clean candidate for SOS...Or perhaps a young Paul Newman for President. Well here is my favorite...How about Beyonce for Speaker of the House.......Very Nice, indeed..The trouble is...NONE of those people know a damn thing about how to run a government....

Finally, There ain't a damn thing wrong with Susan Rices' appearance!......I don't like her for SOS...But not because of something as insignificant as "her looks"...

[jessejaymes]

@Sonny Boehner reminds me of a used car salesman. McConnell reminds me of a white trash preacher in a jerkwater town. Eric Cantor looks like a pervert who might flash his raincoat at any moment. Scalia looks like the Java the Hut. But none of them are in a position to negotiate and represent this country to the world's leaders on a weekly basis. Her appearance is looks poorly groomed and more suited to a non public appearance role. I don't think there is any excuse for her appearance. She isn't ugly. That wasn't the point. She is unkept.

[Sonny]

@jessejaymes Hey, well two guys can look at the same woman and one might like her, and the other might not...And that's cool...But as far as using her appearance I personally would not take that into consideration for any person for any particular job....But hey that's me....

[jessejaymes]

@Sonny You're an interesting person and I don't mean that as an insult. You toe the liberal party line pretty hard and that's a hard line to toe. I understand that. But as a business person who owned multi location business for three decades I came to realizations that some might not agree with. I would hire a pretty woman to sell merchandise who was a total airhead over someone who was on the ball but if all things are equal then I would go with the pretty one because the reality of life is that men are generally idiots and spend much more with a pretty one who knows her stuff over and ugly one with the same qualifications. The Secretary of State does what the presidents says to do. She really has to have the skill set to manage what someone else wants. When it comes to dealing with Arabs they have to see a woman as either both/or a hard nosed, take no prisoners, tough as any man woman OR they love their pretty women. They don't have much use for any other kind of woman. Rice comes across as neither in their word. They're aware of what happened to her with Benghazi. It doesn't to be "her fault" (and I don't think it was) for them to view her as weak according to their style of mangement. And to look like she looks? She loses credibility. She is not a Hilary Clinton type. Hilary is no looker but she's got balls and they know it. Rice doesn't have that reputation. And it doesn't matter what your view of how should be nor if I agree with you or not. It matters to those countries (and the Asians are just as sexist as the Arabs and you know it) and how they view women. In the case of Secretary of State, appearances matter if you don't have the first thing going for you because in the world we live in, for women diplomats it's one or the other. Beat them to the punch or dazzle them with beauty. They're susceptible to either but not to anything else.

[Sonny]

@jessejaymes Well my concern with the position of Sec. of State---is that when you have to deal with other cultures (the world over) sometimes a male presence is best suited for some countries or regions...I'm not being sexist here...but that's just the way the planet works... I don't know that I "tow the liberal line pretty hard"---so much as I simply REJECT the republican point of view on most issues. I just don't think they get it "right" on most of the issues of the day. And I have been in positions where I did hiring as well...And frankly I have to say....I ALWAYS just tried to choose the best person for the job...I SERIOUSLY don't give a flying sh*t what the candidate looks like...Because I have been at the other end of that equation... and I have lost opportunities because I was not that "pretty airhead" even though I had the skills to pull it off..So I would never do that to some one else.

Thanks for the compliment (I think) but I am not a "liberal" or a "Democrat"...I am strictly "Independent"...and have my own views on most political issues. If they happen to coincide with the "liberal perspective" then so be it...But they are my views and on one elses.

[Catty]

I think Kerry is a good choice and most Republicans do too. They lust after his Senate seat. That is my only regret; the possibility of losing that needed seat.

[Thegrif]

Wonder how Kerry feels about being the 2nd choice?

[RedFloppyShoes]

Great, a liar and a former member of the military, who hates the military. This should work out as good as Leon Panetta.

[Sabio]

great, another liar in the oblamey camp, what else is new. how are those fast boats coming kerry?

[Sonny]

I have always said that Kerry should have immediately responded to the lies about his military service.....Instead he let those liars get a way with it..

[Sabio]

@Sonny you mean his lies dont you?

[Sonny]

@Sabio No, I clearly said just exactly what I intended to say.

[Sabio]

@Sonny oh, okay. Much better now, he clearly lied and got away with it is what you said.

[Sonny]

@Sabio Well, if it will help you...I will copy and paste what I said..."I have always said that Kerry should have immediately responded to the lies about his military service.....Instead he let those liars get a way with it.." --(Hope this helps you to better understand what I said)..

[MzMaDeA]

Kerry is a logical choice. My only problem with it is that it puts his senate seat up for grabs. Which means the Democrats could lose the seat.