that the US has world wide - and the respect shown for Kerry's leadership. (While I know there are formalities that require polite words, many of the people went far beyond that.

It was a welcome contrast to some of the juvenile Republicans. It is still bothers me that a Senator who looks and acts like he should be in the cast of Willie Wonks's chocolate factory rather than a US Senator, and who has been caught several times plagiarizing and who certified himself as a doctor, because he wanted to do - even though he could have qualified like other doctors, had the chutzpah to call the Secretary "intellectually dishonest" over using the 2001 resolution - which in fact was open ended and against non state terrorism. Not to mention, Kerry and Obama welcome a new resolution -- but Congress went home.

...to behold, isn't it?

In the Senate and House hearings, there are clearly many who disagree with him on policy who still respect the service he is undertaking and wish him success. But the contingent of RW naysayers is always there and disrespectfully vocal. I think some of them were such 'yes men' for GWB that they will never backtrack even if they have changed their minds. And others either don't like Kerry historically or can't because of politics in their home state.

At the UN, and globally, I think there remains great respect for both the Obama Administration and for Obama and Kerry personally. I think they understand what Kerry is trying to do that is the opposite of GWBs foreign policy. And I think they both want it to succeed and understand the consequences of failure.

The larger audience is the American people and ordinary citizens of the world. It remains to be seen whether...once people understand the policy(which they don't, thanks to media spin)...the American people will appreciate and approve of what Obama/Kerry are working so hard to do.

I also wonder whether, at this point, even if everything went better than Obama's/Kerry's best hopes, if the media would even get excited about it or give them a lot of credit.

I suspect that happened and everything calmed down and the middleeast really did become less a powder keg, they would just switch to whatever the new story of the week is. I am not saying that stories that become the story for weeks are not important. I am saying there is a bit of what captures the imagination of at least one media outlet.

Sometimes this leads to an underlying real important story - like racism in regards to Ferguson, but you can always find other similar events that never became more than a small town local story. Not to mention, the story now is the elections and after them will be the Presidential election. In a way, this might be for the good as Obama/Kerry will be able to do the hard work in leading the world on this.

I honestly saw almost no coverage of the UN hearing. I thank you for alerting me to it being on CSPAN. However, even in this Democratic/politically oriented/concerned about possible war DU population, there was no one commenting and no threads but yours. This morning, a DU poster wrote that unlike Turkey, we changed our position because of the hostages - going on to say that is why Obama authorized air strikes, committed aid and personnel. When I commented, they just repeated what they said - ignoring the timeline.

I suspect that for both Obama and especially Kerry, they are more motivated by trying to make the world better. (In fairness, Obama HAS to care about popularity as it could hurt some borderline elections if he is seen as very negative.) I was impressed that many ministers said more than just politeness and custom would require.

As to the Republicans going for sound bites - their biggest problem is that Kerry did not give them anything in response to their nastiness that they could use against him.

...I probably am pretty cynical.

I think they will continue to refuse to credit this administration...and Kerry...for anything positive and continue, sadly, to blame them for anything and everything they see as negative. Example: My grandson gets the flu...it's Obama and/or Kerry's fault because they Failed to wipe down the desks properly.

But, more seriously, media will probably revert to form: A Kerry FP success will mean CNN will criticize, MSNBC/NBC will criticize but pretend not to, and FOX will switch subject matter to Benghazi(or other long running attack story).

DU, which has been a good news source in the past, will be interesting to watch. Some here will be elated because they, like us, do pay attention. But others will realize the impact on upcoming elections and respond accordingly, IMHO.

As to RP in your previous post...
He seems to understand what Obama/Kerry are trying to accomplish. As a possible presidential candidate, he will be loud about what he thinks. I think that could be a good debate to have for 2016 no matter who enters the race.

Not wonder from witch "Dem" aisle does it comes!

Re: THIS!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5551016

The media still says that "a red line was crossed, Obama said he was going to attack, and then he backed down". Here on DU, there is a slight variation - Kerry and Obama wanted to attack, but Putin tricked them into not attacking OR they wanted to attack, but the anger on the left stopped them and so they backed down ... proving the power of the left.


Oddly, the ONLY thing I would predict differently is -- if things pretty obviously went well, Fox would attempt mischief again -- as they started once before -- by contrasting the significant accomplishments of Kerry to the lack of accomplishment of Clinton. (The wild card is whether they give credit to Obama - My guess is probably not given that 1) he could help the Democratic nominee and 2) he is still part black. )

The good thing is knowing that Kerry knows who he is and we know that the people closest to him understand and appreciate him. He is smart enough to know anything he did that made the world better - including what he did in 1971 and the Syrian chemical weapon deal. Imagine all that savin gas was in Syria where ISIL could get its hands on it.

Love it!

I think we have similar views on the media reaction. Probably from way too many years of observation.

I agree with you that Kerry is self assured enough to just do what is right and necessary anyway. So is President Obama, IMO. I am very grateful for that. If they do pull off a HUGE success in the ME and people react positively to that in a BIG way...maybe they will finally get some of the credit they deserve. At least I hope so...

Most of them never wanted ti give any credit to Kerry. . Even if his accomplishments are as big as an éléphant in a corridor

and thank you, Sec. Kerry, for giving me reasons to be proud of my country.

...really nice that after the GWB Eight Year Drought during which every policy I thought our country stood for was undone by Bush and our standing around the world was so diminished, we finally have the chance to see Kerry stand up for our values as a country and make us proud again.

It's like a breath of fresh air...or a spring rain!

I was proud to see the SoS, on Monday, and Obama, yesterday speak out on climate change and to try to lead the world - even when our own Congress can't be led - to take action.

On the Middle East, it has been amazing to see that inch by inch, they are having success. While things are still incredibly grave, the steps taken have not been insignificant and were necessary as building blocks. I am not speaking ofthe air strikes or military itself, but their careful leadership. From actually getting Afghanistan to recognize a new government, to getting Iraq to create a new government which is speaking of being inclusive, to getting Arab countries to really commit and join a coalition against ISIL, they have done things the media scoffed at as impossible when Obama first spoke of them. (That Kerry quietly led on all three is obviously noticed by his peers and his boss.)

I don't think that things will always go smoothly in this mess. However, I think the pundits who argue that there is no plan are either intentionally ignoring the steps that Obama said he wanted to happen or their own biases are making them distort a plan they would not have chosen as no plan. Personally, I see a broader, clearer plan here than in Bush's spreading democracy fiction they eagerly praised. The difference is that it empowers the countries in the area to work together for their own good.

On the left, people are still so traumatized by the Bush years that Obama has inherited the lack of trust that Bush worked hard to earn. In some ways, I fault them as much as the right, who respond just out of hate of Obama and because they really do believe that Bush was right. The thing that bothers me the most is that most have no ability to admit that they could have been wrong even in the slightest way. This leads to them claiming credit for the Syrian CW deal (because they were against striking) or giving it to Putin, because Obama, in their view, was not pure enough here to deserve it.

But ultimately, it may be that the rest of the world may credit them long before the fractured US media does - especially as it will soon turn to just covering 2016 politics. It may be history that will note that Obama's administration's actions on the Middle East have been incredibly thoughtful and have actually done one thing that no one really has given them credit for -- actually leading and having other follow, because they were won over by the logic of doing so.

Meanwhile our media was more focused on the silly semantics battle of is it "war" or "counter terrorism". In reality, the word doesn't matter. What it seems to me is that Obama, in his West Point speech and his actions on this, is closer to what Kerry proposed as the best response to terrorism in 2004 than to the Bush actions that the media is comparing this to.

Boy, you said it, Karynnj. Lots of insight here: thanks!

...with you about all of this. The only thing I would add is that I often think many people do not realize how deep a hole we...as a country...were in because of GWBs policies. You know that saying, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging" ?
Well Bush never stopped for eight years. The hole was very deep. That's what President Obama has faced and continues to work hard to do...on so many issues. I just think it will take much longer than most people appreciate to get our country out of the hole.
But President Obama stopped digging. And he chose some pretty amazing people to help him start filling it in.