Good NY Times magazine read on Senator Kerry and his role in our foreign policy agenda.

[wisteria]

I particularly raised an eyebrow over this comment,

"Kerry has big plans for himself, whatever job he holds. Perhaps as a secretary of state he would be a highly professional status quo figure like Hillary Clinton, but with a deeper grasp of the opportunities available in the world."


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/magazine/john-kerry-our-man-in-kabul.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1


Oh, and I wonder if Senator Kerry would be willing to part with the rug? I would love to have it and willing to pay. LOL.

[Luftmensch067]

1. Thanks for posting this!

I just now finished reading it -- nice, long article! I'll have to buy the NYT this weekend. I swear, reporters become Olympic gymnasts of logic when they write about JK! There is some amazing material here, but the way it's framed and presented is often astoundingly twisted and bizarre. Even so, it's wonderful to see attention being paid.

[karynnj]

6. This is a great article

I have wondered over the last several months as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria etc have unraveled if or how that would change the perception of Kerry. This article in some ways answers that. It also shows a more human Kerry than the media usually does. It also shows a meticulous, hard working conscientious man, with many virtues that are less rewarded by the American media that they should be, including humility and patience.

It also slightly countered some themes that have hurt Kerry - including referring to a reputation for "chiliness" with Senate colleagues. What is funny is that I have seen hundreds of very positive quotes from people after they worked with him, yet I have never seen a comment from any blasting him when efforts fell apart. Something not true of many other Senators.

[Mass]

2. This is a strange assertion I have not read any place else

Kerry was a longtime friend of Obama’s chief rival, Hillary Clinton

I do not know either of them, so I would not know, but if true, this is the best kept secret in a DC who does not keep secrets.

Nice article, otherwise, and one that does not seem to deal with supposed failure in the past. In this sense, this would be news. (EDIT, I was too fast. This is somewhere there, though on page 4, as is the implication he is too nuanced and that he does not have the guts to break ranks with Obama even when he disagrees).

A reasonably good article, as it presents the role of Kerry in this administration.

[Inuca]

4. And makes that comment

of HRC's that makes all of us MAD even more despicable.

[Mass]

5. It may mean simply "colleague", as this word seems to mean in DC,

or just somebody you meet in various receptions regularly.

[karynnj]

7. I don't think it was true

The ONLY place it could come from is that both perfunctorily have said they "like" the other - just as every Senator refers to "my friend" across the aisle. Kerry did host a fund raiser for her Senate campaign. What I find interesting is that they say this - than later revert to implying that Kerry has few friends in the Senate. But - they then suggest he was a friend of Clintons.

I have never seen anything to suggest that they were friends or allies during the White House years. He is not mentioned in her biography which speaks of those years and mentions quite a few Senators. Noticeably, Kerry was not mentioned on healthcare - as Kennedy and Kasselbaum were, almost as if HRC thought him to junior to credit for his contribution. Back in 2003 - 2004, I was taking a kid to look at colleges, who insisted on spending at least an hour in each of their libraries. To avoid boredom, I tried out an idea I had that you might best see people by looking at books about people around them looking in the index to see how they are portrayed in books where they are not the center of attention. So, I was looking up Kerry and Dean. The only story that I saw of Kerry and Hillary was not a happy one. (Incidentally, the picture I gained was not far off what I think now.)

In a book that Sid Blumenthal wrote on the Clinton Presidency, there was a story where Kerry, with Bradley, Moynahan and a few other Senators came to the Clintons shortly after they were in the WH and strongly suggested that they put everything about Whitewater on the table - as they said they did nothing wrong. The Senators felt that was the way to end the constant calls for a special investigator. He recounts that Hillary went ballistic when they left. This was likely one of their earliest meetings. Another point of connection is that it was Kerry who opened the story on drugs and guns run out of Mena for the Contras. Though Kerry never accused either Clinton of anything - and his report was true, I would bet this did not endear him to the Clintons.

The Clintons did NOT endorse Kerry when he ran. Bill Clinton spoke of only Wes Clark and Hillary being stars of the Democratic party. Some Clintonistas (Carville for one) were still hoping for a brokered convention turning to HRC long after the nominee was obvious. They both did endorse him only when he was the presumptive nominee.

There was also a NYT magazine article on the behind the scenes efforts of Reid, Levin, and others to create an alternative to Kerry/Feingold. Hillary, who Reid et al did not want as a co-sponsor (because of politics) put herself as one. She was described as "rolling her eyes" and being furious with Kerry over his bill. It was also Clinton and allies that gave Kerry hell for filibustering Alito. (I suspect it was her allies that started the whisper campaign that Reid was unhappy with the role Kerry took when he returned to the Senate - suggesting he was not one of the leaders. The fact is he was the party's last standard bearer - and that counts.

On so many of these articles, it seems the media ignores things Clinton did (like staying away from an open Senate for over a month after the last primary when she clearly lost) and the fact that Kerry has - each time - pulled himself together and acted professionally and with dignity.

I assume that Kerry respects many things Hillary did and he was loyal to the Clintons when many Democrats were not. He now seems very respectful and very mindful of not usurping her role. (He actually should likely be stronger demanding teh administration provide witnesses to the SFRC.)

[wisteria]

10. I agree with you on this comment. And, I find it hard to believe. n/t

[Inuca]

3. Come on

you don't even know what the rug looks like :-). Thanks for the link, will read later.

[karynnj]

8. The title is interesting "The All- American"

It suggests patriotism and in fact Kerry is an All American hero. It is a phrase I associate with "all American" girl or boy, implying both many good qualities that biased Americans associate with "American" and that they are the American boy (or girl)next door. (I guess this might mean he doesn't look French anymore.)

[Mass]

9. This is one of these articles that drives me crazy. The main points are positive, but

the writer cannot get rid of DC's meme as he writes, as if it was a mandatory exercise.

This is probably why you find lines l like this one. I suggest Traub listen to the 2004 debates, or to any other debates Kerry had.

But Kerry’s roots run deep in the New England gentry, and his fine sense of social codes may be better suited to the courts of Central Asia and the Middle East than to presidential debates.

And this (yes, he is less blunt speaker than Biden, and Biden's bluntness is sometimes refreshing, but if Traub thinks that Biden or Petraeus do not compromise and moderate their opinions, he is dreaming. And once again, Traub cannot avoid the DC meme (waffler, and loner, if for loner, it is to eventually show the opposite.

It’s still not all that easy to say where Kerry stands on Afghanistan. At times in our conversation he seemed to agree with Biden, and at times with Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the counterinsurgency policy. I felt as if he were seeking not to differentiate himself from others but to locate himself at the core of a consensus. For all his reputation as a loner, Kerry is constantly calling up friends in the foreign-policy establishment, which in turn defines the boundaries of his views.

[wisteria]

11. I questioned the spin on these comments also. You know better and see right through this spin. n/t

[MBS]

16. " " " "" n/t

[karynnj]

12. laura Rozen's take on the article - "The Shadow Secretary of State"

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/shadow-secretary-state-john-kerry-150818048.html

(Relatively short - so I was not sure what I could take:

Given the title here and the point Wisteria excerpted from the NYT - that said Kerry had "but with a deeper grasp of the opportunities available in the world" is likely to anger one important US official, known to have a big ego.

[wisteria]

14. Yes, we are thinking along the same lines. n/t

[MBS]

17. " " " "" n/t

[karynnj]

13. Link to Glen John's Boston Globe coverage

As one would expect of him, a very wooden article that ultimately focuses on being Secretary of State. http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/07/times-profiles-kerry-world-travels/2AOmA4HAKlwnbC1yjKWZvN/index.html

[ObamaKerryDem]

15. This might be a silly question, lol, but does anyone know if the magazine..

..is sold separately or comes as a part of the NYT paper? I believe I've seen it displayed in Borders stores before, but am not sure. I simply must have a copy! :) So great to see JK getting this kind of recognition, even if the SOS speculation is, at this point in time at least, rather redundant. (Though it's nice to see him being taken so seriously for the position by so many! Definitely deserved).

This, on the whole, is a really good piece on him! So nice to see.

[MBS]

18. you've got to buy the whole thing

But it does come with a bunch of other fun stuff -- the book review, the opinion section (less interesting these days than it used to be, but, still not worthless), often extra-long news stores section A. I also confess to guilty pleasure in the Sunday Styles section
If you're not interested in those parts, maybe you can split the cost of the paper with someone who is. .

Bookstores often sell the Book Review separately, but, as far as I know, there's no other part of the paper that's ever sold separately.

[ObamaKerryDem]

20. Thanks for the info! The NYT is not sold where I am right now for the summer..

..(in a small town in AZ--though it is sold in Tucson, as I remember), so I am ordering a back copy from the NYT. I can't wait to get it! :)

[karynnj]

19. It comes with the Sunday paper - which we canceled because

we get it on the kindle.