Defense Secretary?

[karynnj]

68. Happy Thanksgiving to you!

thanks for your first hand account - it is great to hear that he as always is taking everything in stride and is purposeful and positive. I agree wholeheartedly with your reasons. He has looked very happy and very comfortable in his own skin in the last month. He was incredible after the third debate. His laughs seemed real and his grin lit up his face. (I also loved that he tweeted the photo of the robot saying that he had seen Romney when he was in Ohio.)

I was impressed with Susan Rice at her confirmation hearing. What I hate in this process is that the media allies of various people who either favor another candidate or who just don't like a nominee generate so much animosity. It does seem that there were prior comments that Rice does have sharp elbows, but that is often the case for ambitious people.

But, I have seen so many negative unfair comments on Kerry made by people for vested interests of their own that I am uneasy reading the negative comments on Rice - who I had always had a positive opinion of.

It does seems that she does not have a lot of strong ties to Congress. Ironically, if Obama gives her the job, it will likely be because he knows that Kerry will as chair of the SFRC sell what needs to be sold to the Senate. He may think with Biden as VP and Kerry where he is, the SOS can minimize contact with Congress. However, there were complaints by Lugar - and I think they were valid - that they often could not get all the witnesses they wanted and had to fight to get information from the state department. In spite of this, I think Lugar had an ok relationship with Clinton. In MHO, I don't think they can allow this to get worse and Rice starts out with many important Republicans at minimum skeptical about interacting with her.

I really wonder if the real concern with taking Kerry is not Brown or that Obama "likes" Rice better or values her more, but he loses a valuable player on MANY issues from the Senate - including infrastructure spending, climate change, and financial issues in addition to foreign policy. Warren's summary was excellent in describing his value in either position.