The airplane came to a stop, the door opened and out popped Tony Blair. At the bottom of the stairs to greet the former British prime minister on Saturday was Sen. John Kerry, looking every part the diplomat.Four years after a failed presidential bid and amid a race for a fifth Senate term this fall, Kerry’s moves have prompted some questions:
—Is the Massachusetts Democrat positioning himself to be secretary of state in a potential Barack Obama administration?
—Could a Kerry appointment create not one but two Senate openings in Massachusetts, assuming Sen. Edward Kennedy cannot complete his term after being diagnosed last week with brain cancer?
Kerry aides insist he’s not angling for the job and point to his long involvement in foreign affairs. It started with his famous testimony as a 27-year-old veteran questioning the Vietnam War before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It continues today, at age 64, as the No. 3 Democrat on the same panel.
But envisioning him in the post would hardly be a stretch given Obama’s chances at securing the Democratic nomination, a general election shaping up as a "change" campaign and Kerry’s relationship with the Illinois senator.
Kerry would likely face competition from Sen. Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a former Peace Corps volunteer who also sits on the panel, and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, a top Obama adviser.
Over the weekend, Kerry wrote a Washington Post op-ed column chastising President Bush and John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, for criticizing Obama after he said that, as president, he would be willing to negotiate with U.S. opponents such as Iran.
In recent weeks, the Senate has also passed Kerry-sponsored resolutions seeking humanitarian aid for Burma and Robert Mugabe to step aside as president of Zimbabwe, while Kerry has filed legislation to remove South African President Nelson Mandela from U.S. terrorist watch lists.
Many would argue John Kerry was running for president since he before he even served elected office--so much for all those years of planning. If there is truth to this speculation, and Kerry is poising himself for position in a hypothetical Obama Administration, then maybe this perceived planning ahead is not the best strategy for him. If Kerry can spend most of his adult life "running for president" and he failed at that, than mere months of planning will only end in disappointment for Kerry.
Obama may not even get the nomination, and if he does, he may still not win the general election. You can't get your hopes up with anything, particularly politics.
Kerry should stick to doing his job as Senator, and do that job for the sake of his constituents, not for the sake of a hypothetical potential job.
Actually, never mind. Keep passing useless feel-good resolutions that do nothing if you think it will help you become Secretary State, Senator Kerry. As long as you're in that Senate seat, I think I like it better that you have absolutely no impact whatsoever.
