John Kerry

. . .This country has yet to elect a president who served in that (Vietnam) war. . . Neither has it elected anyone who was a highly visible member of the opposition to that war. . . . Kerry, of course, was both, and he lost the presidency to a guy who, when Kerry was driving boats up the inland waterways of the Mekong, couldn't seem to find Alabama. In terms of the executive branch of the government, power skipped that generation.
This may make the biggest difference going forward. Kerry's political imagination is global; he is likely to treat climate change as part of his portfolio as Secretary of State the way he treated BCCI as part of his portfolio as a senator. (The worst thing you can do if you want John Kerry to ignore something is to tell him it's none of his business.) He knows better than most the limits of American power because he was there when they were tested and found criminally wanting, and he was there to test them himself when he came home. Throughout his careers, he has been manifestly distrustful of the culture of secrecy bred by the national security state. He has questioned its operations and its operatives. He has tried to chase down its crimes. He has followed its money. He may not be willing or able to keep this president from tip-toeing right up to the line of covert savagery, but there is nobody more capable of explaining the consequences, or of laying out, in detail, what might come next. John Kerry knows how black ops can turn blood-red, how covert activities become overt combat. He is an expert on how countries delude themselves into wars. That may be enough.