John Kerry

There are many things one could make up, but this makes no sense. There are plenty of behind the scenes stories on both legislation and diplomacy, not to mention the 2004 campaign that show an indefatigable John Kerry. (Compare Kerry at the end of 2004 campaign with Hillary at the end of the hard fought primary. Kerry, in fact, defended both Hillary and Obama for the gaffes saying that a Presidential campaign was the most grueling thing he had eve done. Kerry was obviously exhausted by the end, but also energized, enthused and focused - and very nearly gaffe free.)

There have been times when he has looked tired at Senate meetings, but they often follow diplomatic trips that started when the Senate recessed and ended the day before he needed to return. He clearly pushes himself very very hard - and from his biography always has.

This poster and the poster who agreed with him through the diary do seem to be from MA - and I suspect they might actually be linked in some way.

Only Obama will make this decision and I think we know that it is likely to be a political one (could help, could hurt) and one for the good of his administration. If he feels Rice could do as good a job or if he can structure the job to fit Rice, he still could have Kerry function as a diplomat as he has, retain a very strong Democratic voice in the Senate. It is also true that two of the things likely for this term are rebuilding the country - and Kerry's infrastructure bill is a major effort and he could encourage Kerry to provide a lot of the vision for an effort to rebuild here - and climate change where no one has come anywhere near as close to understanding what a deal could look like than Kerry.

The one thing that does disappoint me is that there NEVER was any call that Kerry be given ANYTHING after his very close loss. It is especially galling that the BG surfaced giving Romney, who ran a gutter level campaign filled with lies and who they KNOW Obama has little respect for a job and they did not suggest Kerry had a leadership role in the Democratic party, or deserved a job in Bush's administration (something I hope he would have turned down).