Obama Nominates Kerry for Secretary of State (VIDEO)
President Obama on Friday nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is set to retire. The nomination comes after Susan Rice withdrew her name for consideration in the wake of criticism from Republicans over her handling of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is considered to be a natural fit and likely will garner the support of many more Republicans than Rice.
The U.S. is currently facing many diplomatic challenges – Iran, North Korea, the European fiscal crisis, etc… – but according to Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the number one challenge facing America “is ourselves.” Watch Haass talk to genConnect about how we can get America back on its feet and where the country can find inspiration:
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
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“We’ve got to put our economic house in order. We’ve got to deal with our schools, we’ve got to deal with our infrastructure, we’ve got to deal with our budget – we basically have to restore all the things that provide the foundations to America’s power,” Haass told genConnect. “We can do things, if we simply get politics out of the way.”
And young people are vital to making America a leader once again, he said. “What’s stunning to me, and disappointing to me, is how disengaged they are,” he said of the younger generation.
Many of our national policies are as ineffective as they are, Haass continued, because the older generation has a more narrow point of view than the younger generation. “Why aren’t young people doing more to improve the quality of American schools
,” he asked. “Why aren’t they doing more to demand our roads – our electricity grid – is better? … They need to be an interest group.”
Obama on Friday praised Kerry for his courage during the Vietnam War and for decades of diplomatic and political service.
“Over these many years, John’s earned the respect and confidence of leaders around the world. He is not going to need a lot of on-the-job-training,” Obama said. “I think it is fair to say that few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers or grasp our foreign policies as firmly as John Kerry, and this makes him a perfect choice to guide American diplomacy in the years ahead.”
With Kerry’s confirmation considered very likely, numerous politicians in Massachusetts are said to be considering a run for the Democratic senator’s seat.
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Category: Lifestyle, Politics, Videos, Views on the News
