Except for, you know, all the consequences, I'm almost happy that John Kerry lost that 2004 election. If he had won, it would be extremely unlikely that he would be Secretary of State today. The way things are going, he should be wearing spandex with the initials SoS emblazoned on his chest.
Who else could spend seven hours in a room with Netanyahu? Engage in "marathon talks" with Hamid Karzai? Who else could negotiate with the French in French?
Was that gaffe about the Russians, Assad, and chemical weapons really a slip of the tongue? Or did he, together with his President, manage to whip up a fine batch of lemonade?
Maybe Netanyahu, Karzai, et al. will agree to anything if he'll just stop talking.
Fareed Zakaria, in Fareed's Take last Sunday, made the argument that, In diplomacy, transparency is often the enemy of progress. I agree. Even though I might delight in the cartoonish aspects of Republicans and Irani hardliners chanting anti-Obama slogans in unison, I am not that hard up for entertainment.
I don't know need to know, minute by minute, what goes on behind closed doors, as long as they're all still talking to each other. We're no doubt still a long way from a peaceful, prosperous two-state solution, a 21st century Afghanistan, or an adult relationship with a responsibly nuclear Iran.
But is that John Kerry in the house? Shut the front door!