Hillary Clinton Prefers John Kerry For Next Secretary Of State

So says Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times:

The big question: Who would Secretary of State Hillary Clinton like to get her job?

It ain’t embattled U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who is dealing with the way she handled the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that led to the killing of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Sneed is told if Hillary had to choose between Rice and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who is head of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, she would prefer Kerry.

“Hillary is not close to Rice, who is tough — but is not the friendliest person,” said a top White House source. “And Hillary’s brief comment recently that Rice had done ‘a great job’ was considered underwhelming and tepid,” the source added.

Interesting…..

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Ron Beasley says:

    I’m not a big fan of Rice but I’m not sure Kerry is the right choice either.

  2. wr says:

    Ooh, it’s not just a White House source who says this, it’s a TOP White House source. So there’s no way it isn’t true.

  3. Andre Kenji says:

    You can say whatever you want about Hillary Clinton, but she can travel to any country in the World and be respected and praised by everybody. I can note that when she visits Brazil. To me, Susan Rice is too aggressive, extremely aggressive. You don´t have to scream and yell at the UN. To many foreigners, that will sound condescending.

  4. Ron Beasley says:

    @Andre Kenji: As an anti hegemony semi socialist independent I agree.

  5. This could be positioning for 2016. Rice as secretary of state for the next four years could be a threat to Clinton in the primaries both by peeling off some of the female vote and possibly running as the heir to Obama.

  6. Stonetools says:

    Obama hasn’t decided yet, but if he chooses Susan Rice for SoS, that’s his right, whatever Clinton feels. The plain fact is that Ms. Rice is very well qualified to be SoS, and she would not be the first Person with sharp elbows to occupy the position (Henry Kissinger, anyone?).
    This whole Benghazi affair is BS. Ms. Rice did nothing wrong, and the Republicans are picking on her because she is the softest target. Obama can mount a pretty good defense if he has to, and he just may if he really wants her as SoS.

  7. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    I think John Kerry would be the superior choice, but that’s only because I tend to be in favor of anything that removes a career politician from Congress.

  8. Tillman says:

    @Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker: In the same vein, I prefer Rice to Kerry because damn it, that’s another special election a Democrat is bound to f*ck up somehow.

    @Stormy Dragon: Quick, name the last Secretary of State elected President.

  9. Ben Wolf says:

    @Stonetools: Rice has a major conflict of interest, given as Secretary of State she’ll have say over construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, in which she has millions invested.

  10. Andre Kenji says:

    @Stonetools: Benghazi per se is not a problem. But there are deeper problems here. Rice sounded condescending, arrogant and agressive on these five Sunday Morning interviews – that´s why she became such an easy target for McCain, Ayotte and Lindsey Graham. For several reasons, these were terrible interviews.

    And a SoS has to deal with the press, with Public Officials and with the Public Opinion of Foreign Countries, many of them hostile to the US(Pakistan is a good example). It´s much more difficult than dealing with David Gregory and Bob Schieffer.

  11. Richard Gardner says:

    Common on recent postings over the past couple of weeks is that John Kerry is being considered for a Cabinet post. I’d support him as SecState, but as a veteran I’d go ballistic (yes, I used to work with ballistic missiles, both ICBM and SLBM) over him being SecDef. Only baggage is Theresa Heinz who wanted to be the USA’s first African-America First Lady (ties to European colonialism in Africa, Portugal).

    Hey Obama Administration, make your SecState’s wife be a colonial.

  12. Dazedandconfused says:

    @Ben Wolf:

    I think that pipeline is all but a done deal, but moreover, the SoS doesn’t make that call.

    She appears to me as a very smart cookie but one with a chip on her shoulder. Better suited to be ones lawyer than someone to send to schmooze with mucky-mucks.

  13. Tsar Nicholas says:

    Well, if we have to have Kerry in the cabinet than SOS is far better than SOD. The latter would be an abomination of epic proportions. You might as well make Jane Fonda SOD.

    As for Susan Rice, the fact it’s still within the realm of possibilities that she’d be tapped for SOS — in spite of the Benghazi fiasco — speaks volumes about the extent to which as a country we’ve severely declined.