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Editorial

Not the Bay State Department

When John Kerry was a senator from Massachusetts, he was sometimes lampooned as a French-speaking aristocrat with his eye on the world stage. But now that he’s secretary of state, Kerry is drawing raised eyebrows by lavishing so much sentimental attention on his home state.

On his first trip to Europe as secretary, Kerry praised the US ambassador to Germany as a “Boston boy”; in London, he touted John Adams’s Massachusetts ancestry; when a member of a German audience complimented his tie, he pointed out that the manufacturer, Vineyard Vines, took its name from Martha’s Vineyard. “Call him secretary of the state. Massachusetts, that is,” noted The Washington Post.

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It’s rather touching that Kerry is having such trouble letting go after 28 years representing Massachusetts. Still, he might start expanding his tie collection. The nation’s top diplomat needs to represent the whole country.