WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s quest for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian quagmire seems to represent the last political stand for the former Bay State senator who, up until now, is best known for being a presidential loser.
Kerry is surely trying to compose his ultimate swan song by capping his 30-year career in politics with a brokered Middle East peace deal by early 2014, right?
Or is he hoping for something a little bigger?
After all, Kerry has never put his 2004 White House loss fully behind him, people close to him say.
Sure, Hillary Clinton is the Democrats’ presumptive darling. But her poll numbers took a massive hit amid allegations that the then-secretary of state was critically disengaged before and during the Benghazi crisis, as her ambassador was being murdered, and was part of a coverup after the fact.
If the controversy proves fatal to Clinton’s White House hopes, it could rekindle Kerry’s.
While a Kerry 2016 presidential bid may seem like the satirical stuff of “The Onion” — which actually ran such a headline last year — some folks in Kerry’s camp didn’t find it so far-fetched.
After all, the former senator and presidential also-ran has almost the exact same credentials as Clinton, plus the added bonus of being a veteran. Kerry’s only a few years older than Clinton, and like almost everyone else in the political world, he’s younger than Joe Biden.
Kerry sailed through Senate confirmation with the promise of being the one bright spot in the otherwise besieged Obama administration. His Democratic convention speech last year showed he can still fire up an audience. If Clinton falters, Kerry still has his running shoes and he believes they still fit. He wouldn’t be the first presidential candidate to win on a second go-round, after all.
Of course, this is an incredibly long shot, and it would depend on a host of things happening — including an actual Middle East peace deal, or something close to it.
Kerry also would have to resist the ever-beckoning call of Nantucket, with its windsurfing, yachting, champagne wishes and caviar dreams — particularly during times of violent turmoil in critical regions of the world like Egypt.
He’d also have to figure out a way to humanize himself more effectively than posting a few shots of him awkwardly kicking a soccer ball in mom jeans, like the ones posted on the State Department’s Flickr stream last week.
And he certainly can’t bungle the management of the looming nuclear threats from places like Iran and North Korea.
He’ll have to have more to show for his tenure at the helm of the State Department than a huge frequent-flyer miles balance.
Maybe all this talk is just ?silly. But crazier things have happened.