Awesome! Listening to talk Kerry gave at the Brookings Institution:

[beachmom]

http://www.brookings.edu/events/2009/0521_foreign_assistance.aspx

There is a video clip, but I prefer long form. There is an audio option, which I have started to listen to. Most excellent.

[Mass]

1. He is doing a great job in foreign policy. I guess we cannot have everything.

(Still mad at him not co-sponsoring Brown Healthcare bill. It is a symbolically important bill. No decent Democrat should have any hesitation).

[ObamaKerryDem]

4. I would be interested in hearing his reasons for that..

I'm sure he has them. Hopefully someone will ask him (in an interview or something) soon. Maybe he's waiting for something else? :shrug:

Great video, though. He's doing a wonderful job as SFRC chair and as a leading voice on foreign policy (among other things). :)

[Mass]

5. What would he be waiting for? This bill is important because it is a symbol that

the Senators will not be bullied by the insurance industry. It has exactly 2 lines, reaffirming that there needs to be a public option coexisting with the private options (they are not asking for single payer). 28 Senators have signed it, including some that are far from being as liberal as Kerry. For a very large part, those senators who have not signed it are corporate Dems like Nelson(s), Baucus, ... and Kerry has apparently answered to one of the organizations that are looking for a public option that he was supporting it. I can understand that he does not take the lead on this issue (he is clearly very busy elsewhere), but what bugs me is that he has times to discuss the difficulties of taxing healthcare benefits, for cosigning (and I am all for it) the fact that healthcare benefits of same sex couples should not be taxed any differently than those of married couples, but not to sign something that is VERY IMPORTANT to many people in this country (or speak publicly, or sign a letter to Sebelius on the same subject). It just makes me wonder if he supports it and if he understands why it is important or if, like single payer, it is something he is not ready to take a stand on. And, because it is something vitally important to my family, it just drives me crazy.

[ProSense]

2. This is awesome. Thanks. n/t

[beachmom]

3. Whoah -- wholehearted endorsement of McChrystal at about 1:00

Hmmm .... sounds like generic endorsement of counterinsurgency. He doesn't seem to put Nama into that context.