There is no doubt that John Kerry is a patriotic great American.
There is also little doubt that he is not the best Secretary of State we had, at least judging from the challenges not met over those past 2 1/2 years.
In comparison to Hillary, Rice, and Powell our allies see him as naive. He is inconsistent (of course Powell and Rice were too! But NOT Hillary). If anything good comes out of those talks with Iran, it is a Kerry resignation.
Unlike the economy that's going well, our foreign affairs are not, and him leaving will be good for Hillary. Webb is the ideal candidate to replace him on his way to becoming the VP nominee.
HIS INCONSISTENCY IS DANGEROUS, BUT HIM LEAVING WILL GIVE US A STRONGER POSITION WITH ALL OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. Iran's cheated its way out of sanctions with impunity while supposedly negotiating in good faith. Him leaving can give us a new starting point
2. Russia invading a sovereign country and supporting Ukrainian rebels was helped by us giving support to the anti-Yanekovich crowds openly, giving Putin an excuse to do so. This was April Delaney 1991 debacle all over again. That alone should have been a reason for him to go. Him going can allow us to renegotiate with Russia in good faith. They would respect Webb.
3. China's cyber attacked us with impunity, repeatedly, with no consequences. Now it is out of the news cycle, but him gone and Webb coming in would put a tough guy in charge to face China
4. Contract employee Edward Snowden gave our secrets to Russia. We kept way too many contract employees with access to highly secretive materials. We need to cut the number of contract employees to pre-Dick Cheney levels. We need someone that trusts their own government to do that.
5. We threatened Syria about chemical weapons. That was followed by more chemical weapons attacks but never punishment. Kerry was a boat commander. Webb - the navy. That's a huge difference in strategic understanding.
6. Our ridiculous non-strategy regarding ISIS - "No boots on the ground". That is as much of a strategy as "agreeing that looking at sugar is bad" (but still eating it) is a diet. Again, a military man would do wonders.
7. We are losing allies like India, Pakistan, and numerous African countries and possibly Turkey and Greece to dictatorships like Russia and China
8. We are hurting Israel's security to appease not the Arabs - despite Saudi Arabia and Egypt (but not Iran) wanting a strong Israel so that THERE'LL BE a strategy against ISIS.
9. We are NOT supporting the Palestinian aspiration for a state at least in the West Bank, but rather blocking them from getting recognition in the UN
10. We pushed for a bailout of Greece, encouraging them to go for an opinion poll that could break the Eurozone and discouraging our allies Germany and France from enforcing their in-house rules, something that almost brought another economic collapse.
In short, what an inconsistent mess.
If it gets any worse our chances of keeping the White House would diminish in a hurry.
Webb would agree to become Secretary of State if he knew he had no chance against Hillary (he doesn't) and if he knew he would continue under Hillary (he will, maybe as VP candidate).
Kerry is done. I salute him. I thank him. But he should go.
2:43 PM PT: My response to the responses to this diary are the following: Many of you are showing uneasiness. Good! Ridicule and derisiveness are fun for me, because I don't give a damn. It was worth to see that there is a core of progressives that are indeed thinking how to solve our current weakness - that got us beat in 1980 and 1988 - and that makes me happy.