President Barack Obama on Friday will nominate Sen. John Kerry,
the former presidential candidate who chairs the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, to be the next secretary of state, a senior
administration official told CNN.
The senior senator from Massachusetts is noted for the experience,
gravitas and relationship-building skills that could help him succeed
Hillary Clinton, the outgoing top U.S. diplomat.
Kerry has traveled the globe on behalf of the Obama administration
to mend frayed relationships. Most notably, he traveled to Pakistan
after a series of incidents, including the raid that killed al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden, that had set relations back.
He has support from Republicans as well as Democrats. The
nomination will be sent to the Senate for confirmation.
"There are very few people with greater experience over a longer
period of time," said Nicholas Burns, a former career ambassador
who has served every secretary of state since Warren Christopher,
and was most recently undersecretary for political affairs under
Condoleezza Rice. "He would be a very, very impressive choice."
"You really need someone who is a renaissance person with a
tremendous range of skill, both political and substantive, with a
deep reservoir of knowledge," Burns said in an interview. "You
need someone who can drill several layers deep on foreign policy
issues."
Sizing up Kerry as secretary of state
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice had been seen
as a front-runner for the job, but she withdrew her name from
consideration after Republicans said her TV talk show comments
about the killings of Americans in Libya were misleading.
Kerry soon became the top candidate for the job. Republicans
opposed to a Rice nomination have bandied about Kerry's name for
weeks, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN that
Kerry would be a "popular choice with the Senate."
It's ironic that several prominent Republicans are rallying behind
Kerry, just eight years after their party demonized him during his
failed 2004 presidential campaign against President George W.
Bush. www.cnnmobile.com/primary/fullarticle?articleId=cnn/2012/12/21/politics/kerry-nomination&pageSize=10&category=intl