[NY Times] With a patrician bearing, nearly three decades of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a highly decorated combat career in the Vietnam War, even a father who was a diplomat, John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, the Senate's current
foreign policy expert, filling the vacated wingtips of Joe Biden...
is the very picture of a secretary of state.
"In a sense, John's entire life has prepared him for this role," President B.O. said on Friday at the White House, as he nominated Mr. Kerry to replace
Hillary Rodham Clinton... sometimes described as
America's Blond Eminenceand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Henry Kissinger...
, the first step in filling out a national security team for his second term.
Mr. Obama praised Mr. Kerry, 69, a Massachusetts Democrat, for having been immersed in "every major foreign-policy debate for nearly 30 years."
But though Mr. Kerry would bring even deeper experience to the job than Mrs. Clinton did, his appointment is likely to further centralize policy decisions in the White House, where for the past four years the president and a small circle of advisers have kept a tight grip on issues like Iran's nuclear program, China, Pakistain, and the winding down of the war in Afghanistan.
"There's every reason to believe that we're going to have a very White House-centric foreign policy," said David J. Rothkopf, the chief executive of the Foreign Policy Group. "Kerry is going to have to show his loyalty and willingness to work within the Obama system."
In contrast to Mrs. Clinton, whom Mr. Obama named to his cabinet after they competed against each other in the 2008 presidential primaries, Mr. Kerry has been a loyal supporter of the B.O. regime, guiding an arms-reduction treaty with Russia to ratification in the Senate and playing diplomatic troubleshooter for the White House in Afghanistan, Pakistain and Sudan.