President Obama lauded Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) as someone whose “entire life has prepared him for this role” of secretary of State in his second term.
Kerry will be nominated to the position he’s long coveted, after embattled UN Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration.
“Having served with valor in Vietnam, he understands that we have a responsibility to use American power wisely, especially our military power. And he knows from personal experience that when we send our troops into harm’s way, we must give them the sound strategy, a clear mission, and the resources that they need to get the job done,” Obama said with the senator at his side in the Roosevelt Room today.
“As John has said, we are an exceptional nation not because we say we are, because we do exceptional things. And I’d say that one of the more exceptional things we’ve seen in recent decades was when John helped lead the way, along with folks like John McCain and others, to restore our diplomatic ties with Vietnam. When he returned to the country where he and so many others had fought so long ago, it sent a powerful message of progress and of healing.”
Obama said Kerry “is not going to need a lot of on-the-job training” and a “great friend.” That friendship included Kerry playing Mitt Romney in the president’s campaign debate prep.
“I think it’s fair to say that few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers or grasp our foreign policies as firmly as John Kerry. And this makes him a perfect choice to guide American diplomacy in the years ahead,” the president said. “…Of course, I also have to say thanks because John invited a young Illinois state senator to address the Democratic convention in Boston.”
Obama said he hopes the Senate will confirm Kerry quickly, and he probably doesn’t have to worry — during the heated opposition to a potential Rice nomination, GOP senators openly expressed their preference for Kerry over the ambassador.
“I think John Kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said last month.
Obama said Hillary Clinton “very much to be here today, but she continues to recuperate” from the flu/concussion that kept her from testifying on Benghazi yesterday.
“She is looking forward to getting back to work, and I am looking forward to paying tribute to her extraordinary service in the days to come,” he said.
Clinton issued a lengthy statement praising Kerry as “an excellent choice.”
“John Kerry has been tested – in war, in government, and in diplomacy. Time and again, he has proven his mettle,” she said. “…Senator Kerry has fought for our nation’s diplomats and development experts – and for investing in their mission and America’s global leadership. And now, he is working closely with me and my team to learn the lessons of the tragedy in Benghazi, further protect our people and posts, and implement every single one of the Accountability Review Board’s recommendations.”
Vice President Joe Biden and Teresa Heinz Kerry stood on the other side of Obama as he presented nominee Kerry. Before the president and the senator came in the room, Biden quipped to reporters that he was there to announcement Kerry’s wife would be secretary of State.
Heinz Kerry smiled and responded, “Another woman!”
Kerry’s colleagues quickly praised the choice.
“The next Secretary of State will need to be open to systemic reforms within the Department while remaining a strong advocate for America’s interests around the world,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “Senator Kerry is well respected among his colleagues in the Senate and I look forward to a prompt and thorough confirmation process that will provide an opportunity to address some of the serious security and political challenges facing American diplomats and development professionals abroad.”
“Senator Kerry has demonstrated his leadership on the global stage. When CIA contractor Ray Davis was jailed in Pakistan in 2011, the President turned to John Kerry to negotiate a resolution to the crisis,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). “I was in Pakistan just a few days before Chairman Kerry’s arrival, and U.S. officials on the ground had great confidence he would find a solution – which he did. Their faith in John Kerry was well placed, and this is just one example of the skills that will make him an exceptional secretary of state.”
If Kerry wins confirmation, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will appoint a placeholder to the seat before the special election, which is required 145 to 160 days after Kerry vacates the seat he’s held since 1985.
It’s widely expected that Sen. Scott Brown, defeated for a full term by Elizabeth Warren last month, would try for Kerry’s seat, especially as there are no strong conservative challengers in his state.
On the Democratic side, names floated as possible candidates range from Michael Dukakis to Ben Affleck. The placeholder may be someone qualified for the job yet retired — like Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
Obama also hosted Patrick at the White House shortly after his re-election win, stoking speculation that the president wanted to gauge the governor’s interest in running for the Senate should a Democrat be plucked from the caucus for his cabinet.
Brown wasn’t available for comment — his father, C. Bruce Brown, died yesterday of Parkinson’s disease.
Obama: Kerry’s ‘Entire Life Has Prepared Him for This Role’
For once I agree with President Retard. The traitor kerry will fit right in with the rest of the scum, from obama on down, who comprise this corrupt obama regime.
This thing with John Kerry (zillionaire) is like, 30 years from now, seeing Julian Assange in charge of the CIA.
But we may hope that Julian Assange can pronounce Genghis Khan.
– diplomat, just like Obama, Sr.
A great diplo, yes, if one is seeking to make sure that the US is no longer exceptional; bows to third world dictators; and gives away all that is inherently America’s proprietary rights.
And Kerry is the mirror image of his other pick, the anti-American, anti-semitic Hagel. BOTH are more at home in Islamic ruled countries and abhor anything smacking of American ethos. And the fact that both are vets means diddly squat. They used their service to hail their bonafides, but their real core is revealed through yrs of placing America on par with third world dictators.
In any case, Kerry’s wifey Teresa, the one who wears the pants, is as dangerous as any foreign interloper. She is so deeply in bed with George, the devil incarnate, Soros that it is hard to know where ones money starts and the other ends.
So, if one is seeking to peel back Kerry’s looking glass, look at his associations, not unlike the POTUS’s, the most radical left in US history – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/10/05/if-it-looks-like-a-socialistmarxistcommunist-plan-it-is-peekingpeeling-back-into-obamas-looking-glass-his-surrogates-too-their-bomblets-waiting-to-explode-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Dangerous, dangerous leaders….
Then look at all ALL the Comgress who accept the choices of this Obama. Compare them with the Congress who accepted Ms.Kagan for Supreme Court Justice. Compare with that Congress that virulent attacks against Robert Bork. Perhaps the best candidate for Supreme Court Justice in the past half century. Under leadership of the well known honourable, honest, caring compassionate feel your pain, humane heir to the Kennedy legacy Robert Bork. Massachusetts electors have a lot to answer for in their choices of representation in government. Back to Mark Twain again, ” There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress”.
“…Kerry’s whole life has prepared him for this role…” Seriously? By this I assume the president must mean the role of “unabashed Liar”.
John Kerry gives it all away with that lascivious, lip-licking gesture he makes when he is uttering an untruth (which is most of the time from what I can tell). I cannot watch the man speak. As a woman, that ‘tick’ of his gives me the creeps; as a law-abiding, honest citizen, what comes out of his mouth makes me shudder. But, yes, he fits right into this administration.
I’m sure Sen. Lurch will enjoy himself immensely for the next 4 years, as he regales Putin and Hu Jintao with stories of all the “atrocities” committed by American soldiers that are “seared, seared” into his memory. That will certainly be a big help in furthering the Big O’s new “flexibility” as he gives away the store to the Russians, Chinese, and all the other countries that he believes are so much more deserving and better than the U.S.A.
More words from a president that has absolutely no clue on foreign relations. Nominating Kerry for Secretary of State is a slap in the face of all those who fought and died in Vietnam. He is the male version of Hanoi Jane, a traitor yesterday is still a traitor today. Stop and think about this, he did not honor the oath he took upon entering the military he has not honored the oath of office he took on entering the Senate and only a moron would believe he will honor the oath of office of Secretary of State. This nomination will also let us know juyst how sick our Senate is, if they confirm him.
Know something? He “slapped the face” of everyone who opposed the Veitnam War too.
To protest the war he threw away his medals. Fair enough, you wouldn’t want to be honored for your participation in what you viewed as an unjust war. But time passed and it became usefull to have a military background to run for Commander in Chief. Instead of explaining why he felt his action then to have been necessary or why he had “evolved” on the issue (reasons you may or may not accept) he said that he only threw away his ribbons. When that didn’t fly too well, a symbolic gesture using symbols of medals which themselves are only symbols of a nation’s gratitude, he claimed he had thrown away other protester’s medals.
He abandoned those who had protested the war alongside of him.
Lying his entire life, yup, is well prepared to be the LIAR for the USA.
Maybe he’ll end up in an embassy at the wrong time.
Kerry’s life has prepared him…
YEP! It’s as true as Obama’s life prepared him for the presidency. Neither one ever worked a day in their lives at anything productive. At least Kerry served in the US Navy…although he embellished his service greatly, put himself in for medals, falsely accused his fellow servicemen of abusing and torturing POW’s in a manor likened to Ghengis Khan…
Oh, and had secret meeting with the North Vietnamese in Paris.
Kerry never accomplished anything significant in his life; married a wealthy heiress, then dumped her for a wealthier heiress. (FYI: Karl Marx never worked either; he married the daughter of a successful industrialist then spent her into poverty).
Yes, Kerry will fit right in with the rest of the traitors in the Obama administration.
Somebody pass me the Hunt’s Ketchup…
Comrade Ketchup Jiggalo Kerry(who received more Boo-Boos
than a Pinata in Vietnam) gets the nod as the new SoS from Comrade ZerO! And he swears that he is more than happy to make the powers of Congress obsolete by swearing all of our national Sovereignty over to the Useless Nations to help Soros and ZerO`s ambitions for a One World Elitist Tyrany! Hopefully he bores some third world tyrant and he has his head lobed of after being totally bored to death with his nose in the air I went to Haarvaad BS!
No surprise that this hanoi jane in drag would fit right in with the obination.
I gotta quit being surprised when this administration gets more disgusting, there appears to be no bottom limit, at least until we are lead to the showers.
Before anyone signs off on the John Kerry nomination I urge them to read The New Soldier published in 1971 and no where to be found because it shows what a horrble person John (Hanoi) Kerry was. I also recommend that folks read Unfit For Command by Jerome Corsi and John O’Neal that points out what a pathetic liar and traitor John (Hanoi) Kerry was. He was being watched very closely by the FBI for his participation with the Vietnam Vets Against the War back in 1971. The organization was overrun by Communists and bonehead liars, many who never served in Vietnam. John (Hanoi) Kerry and Barack Hussein Obama came from the same mold, both are liars, pathetic traitors and a big dangers to our National Security. There is a strong possibility that John (Hanoi) Kerry was given a “less than honorable discharge” from the Military which was upgraded by the most pathetic American President ever, Jimmy Carter. Kerry also negotiated with the North Vietnamese while still a Navy Reservist. He should have been prosecuted for that crime by got off scott free. John McCain is a John (Hanoi) Kerry enabler and his nomination will fly through the cowardly United States Senate.
Check Abe Books for anything hard to find.
“There is a strong possibility that John (Hanoi) Kerry was given a “less than honorable discharge” from the Military..”
And I wonder if anyone in the Senate has the balls to bring up his military record again…in order to truly vet this POS. This fraud and liar has been telling us since 2004 that he’d release his records and DD214, Anyone seen it yet?
This is why sodomy is legal in DC..they do it to each other and then to us.
Once more nepotism, favoritism and back room politics take priority over the most qualified. To declare this monster a “hero” is unforgivable.
Kerry’s entire life has prepared him for this role.
Hmmm…does that experience include meeting secretly with the enemy (North Vietnam) in Paris while the peace talks were going on and thus, committing treason? Does that experience include when, as a swift boat commander, he turned his boat around leaving a fellow soldier alone in the river while under fire? Does that experience include playing the system and requesting a Purple Heart for a splinter so he could get his three Purple Hearts and sent home? Oh, by the way, he did find someone in authority who did sign off on this particular request for a Purple Heart. Does that experience include lying about Nixon sending him, illegally, into Cambodian waters in December of ’68 when Nixon was still president-elect? Does that experience include when one of Kerry’s fellow soldiers reported that he shot an unarmed young Vietnamese boy in the back who was running away? Does that experience include being a founding member of the group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which, according to the North Vietnamese Gernerals was a turning point for them in that they were on the verge of suing for peace and decided to wait after this group’s founding to see what would happen?
If this is what preparing yourself for being Sec. of State of the United States of America is all about — GOD HELP US!!!
Upon review, let me apologize to all those in the Army for saying Kerry was a soldier and not being more accurate and noting that he was a Naval Officer. Again, my apologies.
Well, the State Department (and Washington DC in general) is already swarming with Muslim Brotherhood moles.
Has he released his service records yet?
Good one.
Life certainly did prepare him for life in the treacherous Democrat party. Taking his boat crew back into a hot zone so they could film him jumping out and running around so he could have some “macho” footage to air in his political campaigns. Then when he went before Congress and told horrifying lies about his men and what happened in Vietnam, that earned him his chops in the party big time.
I’m sure Kerry will bring more of the same treatment to this country as Secretary of State. After all, most of the wars the US as been in post WWII couldn’t have happened without State screwing things up, and that includes the Arab Spring State touched off.
Kerry should be preparing his 35th appeal to get out of prison for treason instead of getting ready to be Secretary of State.
What a disgrace. Him, and the country that is allowing this to happen.
The days of the US being a great country are long gone.
When they cut out Kerry’s prostate cancer, they threw out the best part of him.
You know what, who cares? Obama has turned the Secretary of State into a do-nothing position anyway. It’s better this way; Kerry can do less damage as Secretary of State than he can as a senator. Kerry has a lot of repenting to do, but God will see to it that he either repents or gets what he deserves.
I had to laugh at that phrase “served with valor in Vietnam”. They sure know how to tell a joke, don’t they?
It gets “worser” and “worser” as the days go by. What’s next? Appointing Hanoi Jane as secretary of the treasury? Why not? The Muslim-in-chief not only loves destroying our country but he loves to rub our noses in his communist inspired appointments and decrees. The day will come for this dung merchant but the wait will be hard to take. Please God, if I ever vote for another democrat again, for any office, send me off to a fiery hell for all eternity.
He’s just another leftist to replace the pathetic Hildabeast who watched while our ambassador and three others were murdered in Bengazhi. So what if Lurch is always wrong, he’s perfect for the O’Dismal regime. After all, these people all reflect O’Dismal’s policies. ‘Nuff said.
I wrote my worse-than-useless Senator Johnny Isakson (R, GA) and berated him for gushing over Kerry like a high school girl on MSNBC. Is there not a single patriot in DC that will vigorously denounce this shameful appointment? America is the proverbial fish caught between two cats, D & R. Getting Kerry out of the Senate just makes room for another elitist Ted Kennedy-clone Democrat from MA. SSDD, citizen.
Swiftboat Veterans Ad on John Kerry – Sellout (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phqOuEhg9yE
Marrying an heiress, lying about his service in Vietnam, and Kerry’s anti-war activities post-Vietnam, has prepared Kerry for his position as Secretary of State?
What planet does the Obamanation live on?
This is just another of Oblahblah’s lies given a pass and the red-carpet treatment by his sycophants in the MSM. Zero’s re-election is taking on a Kafkaesque Alice-Down-the-Rabbit-Hole sheen.
It’s hard to take in.
Read the book by the Swiftboat veterans about John Kerry, liar, traitor.
I still haven’t got used to “Vice President Biden”.
That is no lie. Keery is so ready to sell out this country.
A four-month stint in Vietnam is at the heart of the senator’s image including slanderous lies about POW’s & MIAs, as murderous war criminals. Looks like it could be all down hill with the Pontus picking someone like Kerry.
“… entire life has prepared him for this role”
… “This role”
Hmmm, what could that be?
West Point is of no real value to any enemy today.
Atomic bomb secrets aren’t really secrets anymore.
Hmmm, perhaps he’s going to do Lord HawHaw broadcasts on Al Jazzera.
Didn’t say what the “role” was? How about Communist traitor double agent?
Perhaps this horrid person can finally be required to release his military records and prove, once and for all, that the Swift Boat Vets were right.
“Prepared all his life for this role”…Obviously,Emperor Zero hasn’t read “Unfit for Duty”. But then,he hasn’t nominated a SINGLE PERSON suited for their role. Kerry will certainly be warmly thought of by our enemies. After all, with his lying testimony to Congress, he was knowingly and on purpose “aiding and abetting the enemy”, and the Communists enjoy working with their “useful idiots”, of whom he is one of the more prominent. O-dumb-a has behaved,ever since the election,as if he has nothing to lose now by doing as he pleases the next four years, with a rubber stamp Senate and theself-styled watchdog media slobbering all over him.I detest him, them and all the remora eels in the government and the electorate, who swim with the big shark Obama in the fear that they would have to both protect themselves and work to eat if not for him.
“He’s just a gigolo,
And everywhere he goes,
People know the part he’s playin’”
Seriously, he’s the only male liberal politician who got where he is by marrying money. It’s usually the women, isn’t it?
Once, just once, I’d like to see a politician with some kind of qualifications other than “keeps their rich spouse satisfied in bed.”
Hard to imagine a worse choice than John Kerry.
But, of course, nobody the Dems put forward is going to be worth a damn.
We still don’t know why Kerry, married to a family of Boston Brahmins (first wife) and supported by the Kennedy clan, was rejected by the Harvard Law School. He should have been a shoe in but was rejected for some failing and had to go to, what, Boston College or University to get a law degree of much lesser value.
Kerry and Obama do, however, share mystery on how their applications to Harvard Law School were handled; why was Kerry rejected and why was Obama accepted?
I believe it. Shooting yourself in the ass, writing yourself up for two Purple Hearts, getting shipped back to the States after two months in country then throwing your medals over a fence and denouncing your brothers in arms. Yes that all sounds like perfect qualifications for a cabinet post in the Obama administration.
I hope the Swift boat guys are ready to tell about him. I’m ready to send a donation. The TV ad with all of those distinguished looking men was a far cry from the Chicago-style thuggery exhibited by Obama and his peons.
God help us. Obama is nominating one of the most inept people in Washington when it comes to foreign policy. Kerry is going to make Hillary look like Benjamin Disraeli, and that’s saying A LOT. Kerry reminds me of one of the talking trees from the Wizard of Oz and he has about as much sense as they did. We really are doomed.
What? Did Jane Fonda turn the offer?
I thought Jane Fonda was just John Kerry in drag.
Only two years ago (or so) Kerry was chiding Israel to give the Golan back to Syria, while the equally obsequious Speaker Nancy Pelosi was visiting Assad in her head scarf. If that is the leftist criteria for foreign service (& we know it is) we all have some heavy lifting to do in besieging our legislators with our disapproval over the direction of this government. I am still in shock over the incompetent Obama winning reelection and it just keeps getting worse.
It seems that those with honest credentials stay away from Obama and his horde of morons – good men dislike having to associate with liars and cheats. Kerry’s known forays into the world of international politics only confirm that this step by Obama, like most others, is a step backward – a movement that will further damage America in the eyes of the reasonable, mostly sane, world.
Now John…here’s you greatest opportunity to mock and defame America’s vets world wide. You can pick up where you left off in 1972 and don’t forget to wear those Purple Hearts you earned.
And to finally show the entire world just what an F’in horses ass you really are and proof that gigolos can succeed.
I still have the original http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Soldier-John-Kerry/dp/002073610X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356219563&sr=8-1&keywords=john+kerry+new+soldier .
In times of fiscal problems it is also especially unacceptable to see the administration continuing to appoint tax evaders to high government positions.
Kerry’s dealing with the N V should remove him from consideration for any government post.
Or is he the ghost of George Ball returning to haunt us ? http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2007/0406/whit/white_ball.html , and a sometimes spongy source, but an interesting look at the continuation of the Dem party “use ‘em and lose ‘em ” policies : http://www.infowars.com/the-imperial-anatomy-of-al-qaeda-the-cias-drug-running-terrorists-and-the-arc-of-crisis/ Arab Spring anyone ? Kerry will fit right in. GBUSA
This quote just begs for snarkisms….
“…Kerry’s whole life has prepared him for this role…”
……yet he wasn’t Obama’s first choice.
The entire debacle is too grim for me to be snarky about.
I must point out that there is no shortage of traitors for Obama to choose from.
In each case, one could easily claim that his or her whole life prepared him or her for that role. They are what they are.
Gotta loves this. What must Lurch be thinking as Zero is telling the media how wonderful he is….Would he perhaps be thinking that HE should be the prez and not this two-bit black, short-termed US Senator with NO experience, poseur.
My condolences to Sen Scott Brown and his family on the loss of his father. Can’t add to anything that has already been said about the SoS nominee.