On foreign policy, Kerry is Obama's good soldier
Sen. Chris Coons, in praising Kerry's performance as Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "The role of the chairman ... is ... lots and lots of time listening to folks who've got concerns, whether it's on behalf of the defense community, the business community, the diplomatic community and being the person who's at the intersection of all that and trying to keep the Senate productively engaged..."
This is what we get if Kerry is appointed? Where in that dynamic are the interests of the American people being represented? Over and over again, when we've been asked or offered a chance, the people of Massachusetts and America have spoken loud and clear for peace, and for demobilizing and bringing home our troops from the endless wars and occupations our defense, business and diplomatic communities have instigated - but the American people are apparently not represented at the table where such things get decided.
How about a Secretary of State who is clearly committed to peaceful resolution of disputes and to not engaging in war and the threat of war to promote private interests? How about, for example, Congressman Dennis Kucinich? He's available now, thanks to some of the most outrageous gerrymandering ever seen - his new district consisted of mostly someone else's district connected to a piece of his home base in Cleveland by a strip so narrow that in places it consisted of only the Lake Erie beach!
In naming Kucinich, Obama would avoid putting a nominally Democratic Senate seat at risk, and would signal his intention to actually pursue the policies that he earned a Nobel Peace Prize for making great speeches about.
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