Once, when I was a White House reporter for a mainstream news organization, my editor ran a story on the front page. Mind you, we only put two stories on the front page, so it was a big deal.
As I remember, it was a first-rate piece that presented some really important information. It deserved to be on the front page. It so deserved to be on the front page that, in fact, it had been there a couple of weeks before.
That’s right, the editor ran the same story twice, in the same place. He deserved to be fired. It was only because the chief editor of the publication was a magnanimous guy that he wasn’t.
My point is, there there are some mistakes, in the jobs we hold, that you just can’t make. It almost doesn’t matter what else you have done. If you sailed the QE II around the world 20 times and then on the 21st you ram it into Gibraltar, you’re not going to be captaining the QE II again. You can go rent sailboats in the Bahamas.
John Kerry’s error Monday in London was of the type that I cannot remember from a U.S. Secretary of State in my lifetime. With a few careless words – and careless is exactly the antithesis of what a diplomat must be – Kerry completely screwed up the president’s policy, a policy that is a matter of war and peace. President Obama should fire him.
By suggesting off the cuff in answer to a question at a news conference that Syria could escape a U.S. bombing by handing over its chemical weapons, Kerry derailed Congressional votes on the matter and provided Syria and its benefactor, Russia, with a means of preventing an attack, which they immediately seized.
Obama’s policy of using U.S. muscle to prevent the routine use of chemical weapons, which I think is a good idea, is now shred into tiny pieces. As Syria’s chemical attacks recede into memory, it will become impossible for Obama to revive his campaign to get either Congress or the world community to back an attack on Syria. What’s more, members of Congress who bravely took a position thinking there would be a vote are now left out to dangle in the political winds.
Worse, the credibility and stature of United States has suffered an incalculable blow. We, frankly, look like idiots. We’ve been vacillating and taking our time in our response to Syria, and now we’re not even going to do anything. We let the Russians and the Syrians steal our own policy out from under us, and they will use this to drag things out while the world reckons with the impossible logistics of discovering and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons while a civil war rages.
Meanwhile, enemies of ours like Iran and North Korea will get the distinct and possibly accurate impression that we aren’t serious about opposing their evil designs. Rivals like Russia and China will be emboldened to go about with the business of expanding their influence at our expense.
Perceptions of U.S. weakness or incompetence hold great danger. Part of the reason Nikita Khrushchev figured he could dispatch missiles to Cuba was that he took the measure of John F. Kennedy during a meeting in Vienna and decided he was dealing with a lightweight. The world almost ended.
Kerry’s mistake should be enough to get him cashiered, but it’s not even his only major league exercise of bad judgement during his short career at State. In the very same press conference Monday, he remarked that the strike on Syria would be “unbelievably small.” Even Obama had to rebuke him on this, saying the United States “doesn’t do pinpricks.”
Last week Kerry wouldn’t rule out putting U.S. boots on the ground in Syria, just before he did rule it out. The man is a walking gaffe time bomb who has to be stopped. The stakes are serious.
Meanwhile, Kerry has devoted significant time and effort to something nobody else is really focused on – a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians. This, even though though it’s relatively quiet between those two while the area around them is falling completely to pieces. The only urgent purpose of this initiative I can think is getting a Nobel Peace Prize for John Kerry.
But Kerry should no longer be in a position to seek the favor of the Norwegians. Rather, he should be renting windsurfing boards in the Bahamas.
108 thoughts on “Obama Should Fire John Kerry”
The US dodged a major bullet in 2004, only to catch the ricochet in 2013…
Very well put.
Who nominated him in the first place? First mistake. Kerry is totally inept, but so is the entire administration. I truly do not know how we will get through the next 3.5 years intact.
OT: We have the energy to make us totally independent, yet here we are with no Keystone in place to assure our safety and allow us to take a real hard line position in the ME. Drilling is up, but only on private land. We need to get leases on the public lands as well.
The only Keystone we have is/are the Keystone Kops.
Best I can figure things, the White House is either a Faculty Club or a Faculty Lounge.
WNY – Have you considered Fawlty Towers as well? ;)
No chance. This administration doesn’t recognize their own blunders and their friends in the media hide or ignore them. Kerry is safe.
These are not blunders in their mind.
This is normal operation.
Plus Obama needs to be surrounded by people willing to take the fall for him. We blame Kerry for being Kerry but forget to blame Obama for appointing him to SoS, perhaps the least diplomatic person in his administration of no diplomats at all.
They don’t believe they MAKE mistakes.
Perhaps Mr. Kerry (speaking “flawless French” or not) could redeem himself (somewhat) by holding a public conference with all of those who were present in Benghazi on 9/11/12.
Oh, wait. That WOULD get him fired…
Sure, right after he fires Eric Holder.
Uh huh. Right after Valerie Jarret in on Dancing with the Stars.
I call this Accidental Diplomacy. Make an of the teleprompter comment, immediately dismiss it as impossible, have your State Dept call it back and label it “a rhetorical comment” and then embrace it.
FIRE Kerry!
“For the Syrian Government to use chemical weapons on its people will change my calculus.”
Obama’s school records are sealed, but I’ll take a stab and say he failed miserably in mathematics and calculations, but it’s his personal skewed inability to make character judgment that is his most damaging flaw. From Clinton to Kerry – out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Maybe he’s doing it on purpose Sadie, to fundamentally change America.
AFVet: I’d only change the pronoun from “he” to “they” ….
Kerry: Confirmed: 94-3-1 (present)
Hillary: Confirmed: 94-2.
Yes but ‘he’ is in charge of ‘they’.
He is one-third, although of late the lines are fuzzier than ever.
This entire fiasco was staged IMO.
I agree, Aileen. There are so many atrocities going on around the world and even here at home (Chicago) that could take our attention.
Perfect timing diversion on the one year anniversary of Benghazi. Where was Obama that night? We know where he was the next morning. AFOne took him, at our expense, to LV for a campaign rally. The man does not have one ounce of humanity.
x 2 or 3
Agreed. They probably cooked it up in St Petersberg last week.
If Hillary gets a medal on the first anniversary of Benghazi Kerry will be praised for his stroke of genius off the cuff comment that led to the move to remove chemical weapons. I agree Kerry should go but this administration is a disaster and Kerry fits in perfectly.
To me he is a traitor and should never have anything at all to do with foreign policy our the military.
Hillary was heckled a little bit last night. The hecklers were wise to hold off to the end because if they had interrupted her speech, they would have been forcible removed.
Sorry, heckled about Benghazi. BTW, Jeb Bush awarding her a medal is grounds enough to keep the nomination away from HIM.
Agreed,…no more Bushes please.
Do you hear US Carl Rove ?
No more Karl Roves!!!
!!!!!
Or she would have pitched a fit and walked out.
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“What’s more, members of Congress who bravely took a position thinking there would be a vote are now left out to dangle in the political winds.”
I disagree, Keith. There is nothing brave about being a warmonger, unless they want to put on those boots and uniforms and lead the fight. Those members of Congress who steadfastly opposed an unprovoked attack against the sovereign nation of Syria are held in the highest regard by we Americans who are fed up with wasting America’s blood and treasure in the sandpits of hell.
Susan and I agree (call the media!).
Amen !
If they attack US, turn the sand to glass.
Time to disregard the politicians.
Level it with the Air Force and the Navy, and leave.
Obama makes me sick.
His red line is nothing more than lipstick.
The active military we have now volunteered to serve the Country.
They were not drafted, they enlisted.
I don’t think many of them trust the current CIC to make the best decisions concerning the welfare of any of the troops serving this Country, especially when he is playing with the fact of sending them into a civil war amongst Muslims.
These people are not stupid, but they have to follow orders.
The main problem–or one–with all of his idea was it would not have solved anything or scared anyone that much and it could have or will backfire horribly. Assad would stay, check, the weapons will stay (maybe not check with the diplomacy thing), the punishment is so slight they can replace the damage with the Russians help, and it might have helped the wrong side–well, there is no right side. So I say let it peter or as I like to say–pend.
It hasn’t solved the problem in Iraq or Afghanistan.
These people are tribal barbarians.
Obama is contemplating sending our young troops to support the side that cuts the heart out of his enemy and eats it ????
The side that burns down the churches of Christians, who be-heads Nuns, rapes Nuns, crucifies the members ?
Instead of siding with the Muslims, we should go in and rescue the Christians.
And amen to you, AFVet.
The only reason that Keith is agitating for use of weapons in Syria is because his allegiance is to Israel.
WTF? Which do you think will be the first nation to be struck if we attack Syria? Papua New Guinea?
I really don’t think Keith is agitating for the use of weapons in Syria.
Perhaps you are misguided.
I have never had the problem of judging a person on their skin color, or their religious convictions.
Rather, it is their character that is most important to me.
If I disagree with their views, I tend to let them go their own way instead of demanding that they think like this or that or behave in this way.
Christians and their Churches are being destroyed in the ME.
Do you condone that ?
Faun, you have landed in a hornet’s nest.
Beware.
Keith is favoring the strike, tho…I don’t know about the Israel angle–I am not seeing that.
Faun obviously dropped in from a St. Pancake site (Rachel Corrie) wannabe. It won’t be back.
Kerry is a rogue Secretary of State? He (and his wife) may have delusions about him becoming President. I don’t know just as I still don’t know who used the chemical weapons. I really don’t because I don’t take Obama’s word on anything. As I told Susan on the other thread, we are in a lose-lose situation all across the Middle East thanks to the Obama/Clinton Arab Spring policy through which we help radical insurgents overthrow the established government in the name of democracy, a word which means nothing to the peoples of the region.
Americans should not be so naive to think that other countries are their friends or allies. Allies temporarily, yes, when there are common interests. But every country ultimately looks out after its own interests. Putin wants terrorists even less on his doorstep than we do, and he has a rare naval base in Syria. Obama would like us to focus on Putin as the villain now, but Obama is the one who has let us down.
Amen.
Maybe Obama will replace Kerry with Putin. According to a report this morning, President Obama was so impressed by Vladimir Putin’s ability to save him from having to bomb Syria that he’s asked Putin to help him pass an immigration bill through congress. http://goo.gl/4DATMA
Not so sure that belongs in the ‘satire’ column….
Basically Obama punted to Putin on this. No reason he wouldn’t outsource the rest of our foreign policy. Then he and the leftist Dems can continue their scorched earth policy in America.
There won’t be a pink slip inserted into MrKerry’s next paycheck. He’s the perfect lightning rod or patsy for everything or anything that goes wrong.
For our sake, MrKerry should be sent on a complicated mission to draft new trade agreements between ,say, Lithuania and it’s neighbors.
He is whipping boy for the boy king.
Mr. John Heinz will probably be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his brilliant work to promote peace the day after the President was prepared to begin a “targeted” and “unbelievably small” response to Assad’s use of chemical weapons.
Agree, Keith….Jacques Kerry should have been fired. Then again, he wittingly ( or unwittingly) threw Obama the only possible lifeline. I remember CNN reporting that the WH was furious – and five minutes later CNN reported they were giving it serious consideration. Bottom line: Mssr. Kerry will probably get a raise and the MVP award It’s surreal!
***Speaking of Kerry renting windsurfing boards in the Bahamas….
Kerry met Marvin Nicholson, an employee at a windsurfing shop on Nantucket, and hired him to be his ‘body man’. Nicholson, an ex-bartender and caddy, is now Obama’s body man and a regular member of his golfing foursome. Strange bedfellows.
‘Meanwhile, Kerry has devoted significant time and effort to something nobody else is really focused on – a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians. This, even though though it’s relatively quiet between those two while the area around them is falling completely to pieces.”
Perhaps that’s because many view the so-called occupation of land Israel won fair-and-square in a war it didn’t start as the root of all evil.
I think it’s Victor David Hansen who said this administration, this POTUS simply can not and does not attract top-rate people.
No one wants to work for him/them.
Love the idea of Putin as SofS.
They don’t want top-rate people. As long as Obama insists on being the smartest person in the room everywhere he goes, these positions will remain filled with the Joe Bidens and John Kerrys of the world.
This is what we get for electing senators. They all suffer from diarrhea of the mouth and know jackshit about governing.
It’s about time Americans need to 1) put up and shut up against the new Amerika, 2) get out from under the two party system and elect some winners that can change things or 3) go all founding fathers on this tyranny. A little revolution ever now and then is a good thing.
Ach, I just read it this morning and can’t find it now: a high percentage (maybe in the 70s) of voters who call themselves Republican or who are independents like myself leaning right now identify themselves with the conservative/libertarian wing of the GOP. Better to take over the party than to try a third party.
I know many Dems leaning that way too :)
“This is what we get for electing senators.”
Repeal the 17th Amendment?
“Voter IQ” laws… too stupid/lazy not to follow the news = NO VOTE FOR YOU (aka; Obama supporters)
Doesn’t pass the sniff test.
Mandy, you need to pass a test to get a drivers license right? Well, if one can not pass a jr.high/high school level ‘civics-current evetns’ test one should not be allowed to vote. (US Vets with an Honorable discharge would have an exception)
If you want to run for national office one need to pass a stricter test.
Ive been working on this policy/statute for a few years (especially after a few drinks ;-)
You’d have to amend the Constitution.
Better Idea…If you are on welfare or foodstamps or one of the multitude of government handouts excluding Social Security and Medicare, no vote for you! If you just take the foodstamp moochers alone out, Romney would have won by 10% points.
I agree.
5 Questions that rotate on a random basis (no cheating).
1 Wrong, your out.
Now,….go ahead and call me a racist.
Yes, Mandy. Time to repeal it.
Good luck with that!
It’s one of Mark Levin’s proposed amendments in his book, “The Liberty Amendments”.
We The People can go around the ruling class and amend the Constitution with an Article V convention organized by at least 2/3rds of the states. It won’t be easy and it won’t be quick, but I’m not going to stand by and watch my beloved America go down the crapper without a fight.
LIKE !
Colorado just recalled theirs !
Very insightful post but I must correct one thing:
The world realized America was a nation of idiots before Kerry’s gaffe. The exact date was November 6, 2012.
!
Ah, Easter Island at it again. Mark my words, it will not be the last blunder by this man. He has an unending supply of them in his repertory.
One problem is that when he was selected there was no lesser of two evils. Both people vying for the position in that pea brain of Obama’s were not suited or competent enough for the job. The real problem with Kerry is that he actually thinks he knows what he is talking about.
Now,what about Hagle.? That’s a good selection too. Another time bomb waiting in the wings. This is painful to watch unravel. Welfarism will destroy our good country.
Firing Kerry raises a scary issue: Who would replace Kerry? I know it is difficult to admit we could sink lower with a Sec. of State, but Susan Rice is a possibility.
Maybe Hillary again? Something weird about the “civilian” Hillary showing up at the WH to make a statement on Syria?
Maybe Bill ?
Oh Lord,…please not.
Without exception, every single person who has left the Obama Administration has been replaced by someone even less competent. Forget Susan Rice. It’s more likely to be someone like Hank Johnson or Barbara Lee.
Right,…..skin color is what’s important.
Character is to be dismissed.
I nominate Reggie.
You bring up a great point. I was thinking about this yesterday. What made Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 great leaders is they surrounded themselves with great Cabinet Members who had prior experiences at Cabinet level in the Federal Government. Jim Baker, George Shultz, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney,Weinberger, Carlucci are just a few that come to mind. Greater leaders ignore the pyramid theories of management. A 10 hires an 8, an 8 hires a 6, etc. Many of the men previously mentioned were capable of being President and were 9 and 10’s.
Looking at the current Cabinet there isn’t one cabinet that has previous Cabinet experience. Obama had zero experience in managing anything more than a Senate staff. His ego has proven he can not have anyone he feels is smarter than him in the room.
He has built his Cabinet in his image. 42% of the cabinet have been educated at Harvard with no management background. So, in essence they all academic and theories with no real experience. Would you invest in a company that hire a group graduate students to run a Fortune 500 company?
Great analogy with the Fortune 500 companies. One of Reagan’s desk plates said the following: There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit. Can’t imagine the pathologically narcissistic demagogue currently occupying the Oval Office would or could ever share Reagan’s philosophy.
First, there was concern that Obama had a grand plan to transform America.
Then, there was concern that others were simply using Obama to transform America.
Now we find out that no one is even at the wheel!
Good stuff. Bikers in WDC. America the Beautiful sung at Mass today.
And let us never forget the other 9/11. Benghazi was all about gun running to the Syrian rebels. Must not have been the ‘moderate rebels’ McCain is always talking about.
Definitely something stinks in Benghazi. Something this regime doesn’t care to share with us.
Part of the reason Nikita Khrushchev figured he could dispatch missiles to Cuba was that he took the measure of John F. Kennedy during a meeting in Vienna and decided he was dealing with a lightweight.
Khrushchev was right. Kennedy backed down and withdrew US missiles from Turkey. It was a huge victory for the USSR. If Obama had been President in 1961, we would all be speaking Russian today.
I shudder and shake to think of the language we’d be speaking today, if Obama was president 12 years ago.
“durka, durka!”
I wonder if Aisha would be the No. 1 name for girls, with Mohammed for boys.
ebonics
Bingo!
Kruschev also backed down in Cuba.
But, the Soviets were believers in MAD. People such as Assad’s patron in Iran do not.
Krushchev didn’t back down. His position before the crisis was exactly the same as it was afterwards. In the beginning, he had no missiles in Cuba. At the end, he had no missiles in Cuba.
Now examine the US position. In the beginning, we had missiles in Turkey. At the end, we had no missiles in Turkey.
Krushchev’s goal was to get US missiles out of Turkey. He successfully achieved that goal. The liberal press tries to credit Kennedy by saying he got missiles out of Cuba. But the bottom line is that in the beginning, there were no missiles in Cuba. It was a huge Cold War victory for the Soviet Union regardless of how much the press tries to spin it.
Owen: Spot on!
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Anyone else notice how the President referred to him as John Kerry instead of Secreteary Kerry in his interviews on Monday?
Prob for the same reason we cannot attach the title president to his name.
I did hear the “anointed one” say “I am sending John Kerry……….”. I shuddered at that. Why not say, “John Kerry is going to…….”. Good God he is a narcissistic egomaniac.
While I wasn’t for the US being involved in Syria, I have to wonder if John Kerry’s “gaffe” was really a “gaffe.” Could it be that Obama knew Congress would not approve a strike in Syria so this was the only way to save face? Granted, he still looks like a weakling but…maybe it’s my paranoia but I just don’t trust anything the federal government does these days.
For anyone who is surprised by Kerry’s incompetence, I have a bridge to sell you. Kerry, having positioned himself on a national stage some years go, has displayed is empty head on many, many occasions. He should go back to doing what he apparently does well – marry wealth widows.
It’s very hard to fire someone when you have never done it before. This goes to the total lack of any experience Barry has with running anything. (Even 4 years sitting (euphemism intended) in the Oval office. And to top it off there is a perfect out for Kerry, his wife. She could relapse and the distraught Kerry resigns for personal reason, but Barry can not think that way.
President Barack Obama and John Kerry HAVE BEEN CLOSE FRIENDS FOR MANY YEARS
The Houston Astros will win the World Series before Kerry is fired. Like never.
The country is being run by an administration replete with morons.
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The author mentions peace in the middle east? He should read a bible if he owns one! 90 percent of all biblical prophecy has already come to pass exactly as foretold, some of written 4000 years ago! Every i dotted and every t crossed! The last ten percent deals with the last days which we are now in! If he read it he will discover there will be no peace until our Lord Jesus defeats Gods enemies at the battle of Armageddon! Blood as deep as the horses reigns! Kerry along with Obummer shall have their part in the Lake of Fire!
No, he would never fire John Kerry because John Kerry does Great Work.
Since I feel this is very true in a sincere manner I think no, he would never fire John Kerry because John Kerry does Great Work. So if this is my comment post it anyway!
Hamas are terrorist! Israel needs to defend themselves.
What is wrong with you John Kerry! John Kerry should be fired!
Obama is weak! He is hurting our country!
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