Prune Juice Media

John Kerry Nominated as Next U.S. Secretary of State

Posted on 21. Dec, 2012 by Stevie in International Affairs

(Photo by Getty Images / Streeter Lecka)

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) received an early Christmas present from President Obama as the week comes to a close.

Kerry was nominated as the nation’s next Secretary of State to succeed Hillary Clinton. The announcement was made from the White House on Friday afternoon. The nomination will be sent to the Senate for confirmation.

Secy. Clinton had long been vocal about not returning to a second term in the Obama Administration. For quite a while, UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s name had been floated as her replacement. But, that effort was derailed when Susan Rice withdrew her name for consideration after she caught flak from Republicans about her remarks on the consulate attacks in Benghazi.

If confirmed, Kerry will approach the role of secretary of state with a wealth of diplomatic qualifications. He currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has traveled on behalf of the Obama Administration in recent years. His understanding of foreign policy, specifically in the Middle East, will be quite helpful to him in the role. It is important that he represent the best of America — meaning that he has to do a lot of listening and understanding of other people and cultures in his new role. As simple as it sounds, not everyone has been able to execute that. *glares at George W. Bush*

I’ll be honest that I wanted the secretary of state’s job to go to Susan Rice. I never paid that much attention to Kerry after the 2004 presidential election to know that he was beefing up his foreign policy credentials in this fashion.

This is not a bad (delayed) consolation prize if you don’t win the presidency….

Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, president, Secretary of State, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Susan Rice, U.S. Department of State, UN Ambassador