WASHINGTON — By traditional measures, John F. Kerry, decorated veteran and a senator well regarded on the international stage, is more than qualified to be secretary of defense.
Yet news reports that President Obama is considering Massachusetts’ senior senator to oversee the armed forces sparked a range of reactions Tuesday, from full-throated support to bewilderment. Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has been instead considered a leading candidate to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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David Petraeus is available and very qualified to be Secretary of Defense.
Agreed.
Right...he's VERY prolific with the emails. We know that for sure.
Kerry for Secretary of Defense??!! the guy who trashed talked our armed forces re Vietnam?? that would be an outrage!
Yeah, well, the defense department at least should have been trashed talked during the Vietnam War. You know, you can be dedicated and loyal to this country and its armed forces, and still think that people running it at times are full of it.
Trashed for what? For speaking out against an another undeclared war that was simply put, a terrible mistake? What planet are you folks that see that as wrong from?
Experience matters? What experience did Clinton or Panetta have to get their jobs? Obama was probably the least experienced president in history.
Hey...Condi Rice isn't doing anything? Dracula, Cheney, also isn't dead yet! Gotta remind conservatives what they had under W!
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In an industry going the way of the horse and buggy, I suppose a newspaper can get away with superficial reporting like this. But anyone even remotely familiar with Senator JFK (Just For Kerry) and his record should know what Bryan Bender apparently does not: that Kerry's alleged Vietnam service doesn't come close to passing the smell test (three months in country, no blood, false medals, falsely thrown away), that his entire career has been characterized by self-seeking and the marrying of rich women (the pay is great, but the hours are long .... on that job), and that his level of arrogance and pomposity has reached such heights that even progressive Democrats complain about him. Two questions: (i) as SECDEF will he finally make public his U.S. Navy personnel file, and (ii) as SECDEF will he carry his own 8 mm camera around with him (as he did in Vietnam) or will he rely on the videographers at the Department of Defense to record his every faux heroic pose?
But the fact remains: John Kerry WAS IN VIetnam, while wingnuts like Cheney, Bush and their ilk were busy hiding out from any possibility of danger. Armchair warriors tak big but rarely put thir own skins on the line.
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It's always amusing to hear from super patriots on the question of defense. The only firefights that Cheney ever engaged in was firing people who dared question him. He and Bush, defender of the Mexican border while Kerry was in Vietnam in real firefights, are very good at sending young men to their deaths but not so good at putting themselves in danger. I find that whole aspect of this question, frankly, disgusting. I think he should go to State, if he's going to go anywhere. His experience in international relations is deep. He has stature internationally. However, my personal wish is that he would stay in the Senate and make his contributions there. Politically I am to his Left but he has very real value to the country and to Massachusetts right where he is. HOWEVER...when I read the following, I am given pause. “Kerry has not been involved in any significant way on defense issues for the past 20 years,” said a long-serving senior defense department official who asked not to be named. “I never met with him or received a call — or placed a call — to him.” Maybe defense is exactly where he should be. The military-industrial complex is real. A person with long Washington experience who could fundamentally question "long-serving senior defense department officials" might be just the right guy. We need transformation in our military and Kerry might be the guy to do it.
I think John Kerry would make a superb Secretary of State. I hope Obama doesn't aste Kerry's talents on Defense.
Is this an example of "uniform worship?"
No. The classic example of uniform worship would be Dubya, who featured it in his Mission Accomplished photo op but ran off and hid in the Texas Champagne National Guard rather than serve in Vietnam. Daddy's connections came in real handy for him.
OMG - This article is total garbage and lacking credibility for a high-school newspaper.
Toooo funny, the author claiming Kerry is "more than qualified to be secretary of defense."
No Bender, surely you understand that "Democrat" is not synonymous with "qualified."
But Republican after the name somehow is perfectly credible?
My dad always told the story of how Kerry told the Vietnam vets to throw their medals back at the state house because the government had mistreated them...then later when it suited him, Kerry was showing off the medals he had claimed he discarded and told countless others to do as well. SECDEF seems out of the question...
Hate to admit it, but the guy nicknamed 'Liveshot' by the Herald's preeminent columnist, Howie Carr, would definitely make an at least credible Secretary of State. Whether or not he would be suitable to take over the Pentagon is another matter worthy of debate. One thing sure, Susan Rice, as brilliant as she may be, is ill suited to head up the U.S. foreign policy team for one major reason - she flat out lied in public about an incident that took the lives of a U.S. ambassador in Libya as well as three Americans serving as security men. Lies to the public such as that would certainly give pause to diplomats from unfriendly states seeking some sort of relational gain from the U.S. So, push come to shove, my vote goes to Liveshot to succeed Hillary Clinton at Foggy Bottom.
One thing that never seems to be mentioned in all the discussion of Cabinet positions for Senator Kerry is that his work in the Senate is very important. Among other things, Senator Kerry has long been the strongest voice in the Senate for action on climate change. Now that public sentiment is shifting strongly in favor of taking action, some of us are hoping that Kerry will choose to stay where he is. Rumor has it that Harry Reid will be apoplectic if Kerry leaves the Senate; if Reid appreciates Kerry's presence that much, could he entice him to stay by promising support for things Kerry wants to accomplish? In any case, Kerry's role in the Senate is important and if he leaves, it will be a real loss.