After much debate over the past few weeks as highlighted by the media, John Kerry was confirmed in as the new Secretary of State today by an overwhelming majority of 94-3. The 3 nay votes were all by Republicans. John Cornyn of Texas claimed that Kerry's views were "liberal" and "not consistent with a majority of Texans" tells Fox News.
Fellow nominee Susan Rice, the ambassador to the UN, had withdrawn her nomination due to mounting criticism from the Republicans, especially over Benghazi and comments she made on television post 9/11.
In his speech, John Kerry said he was pleased at the bipartisan support for his nominations. Other senators expressed their praise for Kerry and his work so far. Before accepting this position, Kerry worked for the US Senate since 1984. He was also a war veteran from the Vietnam War and received medals during that time as well.
Nominations for the department of defense and treasury have also been made. Chuck Hagel up for Secretary of Defense and John Brennan for CIA director have been having a much tougher time than Kerry in securing their positions. More debate and deliberation is yet to come on both these nominations as well.
Now that the nomination has been secured, what are your thoughts on how John Kerry may fulfill his role? Will he be successful? Do you agree with his stance on any of the issues?
Read more about this topic here, here and here.
In his speech, John Kerry said he was pleased at the bipartisan support for his nominations. Other senators expressed their praise for Kerry and his work so far. Before accepting this position, Kerry worked for the US Senate since 1984. He was also a war veteran from the Vietnam War and received medals during that time as well.
Nominations for the department of defense and treasury have also been made. Chuck Hagel up for Secretary of Defense and John Brennan for CIA director have been having a much tougher time than Kerry in securing their positions. More debate and deliberation is yet to come on both these nominations as well.
Now that the nomination has been secured, what are your thoughts on how John Kerry may fulfill his role? Will he be successful? Do you agree with his stance on any of the issues?
Read more about this topic here, here and here.
2 comments:
I think that despite some of the naysaying, Kerry's largely bipartisan support and the extent of his experience make him very promising. Admittedly, I am not terribly familiar with his political stances, but much of what I have casually heard and looked up has been at least somewhat appealing to me. Hopefully he will do the job well and prove to be a good replacement for Clinton.
I think Kerry will definitely be successful as the Secretary of State. After all, he has been in the Senate Foreign Relation Committee for more than 25 years and, with John McCain, contributed a lot to the reopening of US embassy in Vietnam. No one is probably more experienced than him to take the job.
Recently, Kerry offered his belief that US should provide humanitarian aids and help create a better world beside basing its foreign policy on its military might. If Kelly were to stay true to his belief then the US would probably be able to make more progress over places like North Korea or Iran, in the case of which flexibility would reduce the tension in the area.
However, his future policies regarding Iran draw my curiosity. On one hand, he is trying to undermine the role of the US military in its foreign affairs, but he also takes a firm position in regard to Iran, saying that "our policy is not containment. It is prevention and the clock is ticking on our efforts to secure responsible compliance.” Does this signal that he is willing to use force when diplomatic/humanitarian effort fail?
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