2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Guess who initiated the investigation into Clinton's emails? John Kerry [View all]karynnj
(59,501 posts)Not to mention, as I said, I have a huge amount of respect for John Kerry. He is an incredible person, a brilliant statesman, and someone whose entire life has been one of service.
He did exactly the right thing in March 2015 going the SD IG to lead the internal investigation and to separate himself and the rest of the SD from the IG department whose job it is to investigate internal practices in the SD. The investigation was not just to examine what Clinton et al did, but to look at what was being done at that point and to recommend changes if needed. That is what you want the head of the department to do. Not to mention, it wisely took Kerry, a long term Democratic politician, out of that process. A win/win thing to do. It meant that he and his team could spend their time on things like the US/China climate pact, the Paris climate deal, the Iran deal, trying to end violence in Syria ..... It also freed him from having to say anything about HRC's actions on email - allowing him to say that it was not appropriate for him to speak - that the SD had an independent IG.
Biden actually was one of the people who pushed Obama to make HRC Secretary of State - leaving Kerry to chair the SFRC (which Biden had headed and the next in line, Dodd wanting to keep the Banking committee which already had plans to do what became Dodd/Frank) From that, I assume that he did not dislike HRC. He also did not endorse either when he dropped out in 2008.
I will vote for HRC, who almost certainly will be the nominee. Not because I think she will be a good President or because she is a good, inspiring person, I am convinced of neither of these things. I am for her because I am against Trump and think he will be a disaster. In voting for her, I am voting for the US doing more on climate change because it is critically important and Paris, limited as it was was an enormous accomplishment for Kerry and Obama, for the continuation and expansion of ACA, the continuation and improvement of Dodd/Frank, and for the supreme court. Many hard won Obama accomplishments could be destroyed by Trump. ( I include the climate change pacts, ACA, Dodd/Frank Iran, and everything done to revive the economy in 2009 as his top accomplishments. I did not include the last two as ones that Trump could destroy because the economic ones happened and worked and Iran is a multinational agreement and - at this point - what could be eliminated in the detailed monitoring that Iran agreed to. Neither Clinton or Trump would have made the Iran deal, though at a critical point when Congress was voting HRC supported it, but at this point the US has no gain in ending it.)