Kerry is well positioned in the Senate - and was said to be the 12th most powerful person there recently. As McCain, Obama and Clinton were all placed higher, he will likely be in the top 10 after the election. (If McCain wins, both Obama and Clinton, who do not have the seniority that Kerry has will likely be below him as this scale counted both positions in the Senate and influence in the media etc. As Presidential candidates, they both are buoyed because they are running for President. If Clinton wins, she leaves the list and Obama likely moves lower than Kerry. If Obama wins, the same thing likely happens plus Kerry will be seen as having the ear of the President.
But, that is more a measure of how important they appear. The fact is that that there will likely be four big issues facing a Democratic President. Kerry is in reality the key person on two of them, even if his name is not on them. Kerry has support - not because he twists arms or threatens not to speak to people, but because he has solid expertize and he does speak to everyone. He really is a great Senator.
1) Iraq - Most people concede that the ISG recommendations were close to what Kerry had called for in 2004 and 2005 - Kerry clearly influenced the bipartisan commission. Though there is a tendency of Senators to lavish false praise on the Senate floor and that Biden would have loved Kerry's endorsement, Biden's comments after Kerry signed as a co-sponsor to Biden's Iraq bill were specific and rang true. It also seemed lost on the media that Kerry did not sign on and Biden did not get a majority of support until he did what Kerry spoke of the year before. That change - charging the Iraqis to draw the lines on the map and define the functions of the states vs the national government were very important - without them, the proposal had echoes of the British actions of unilaterally defining country and government for the colonies. It was also interesting that Senator Warner, on the cusp of Biden's victory on this, took to the floor after Kerry spoke to point out that there already was a Kerry written sense of the Senate resolution for a regional conference.
(links - the Democratic plan was like Kerry's -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3161801#3166741 , here's the corrected link to that Senate news conference -
http://democrats.senate.gov/multimedia/051607_iraq.cfm Kerry comments on Biden plan with Blitzer, about 4 and a half mintues in and his comments on Rumsfeld memo etc - well worth watching remembering that this was where Kerry was in November 2006 - and this was the Kerry the Clintons wanted to remove from the 2008 race.
links to Biden and Warner and Kerry speaking of the revised Biden plan -
http://www.kerryvision.net/2007/09/biden_gives_props_to_senator_k.html )
2) Global warming: Kerry was the Congressional delegation to Bali. Though the media gave little attention to this - Kerry was praised in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by the Bush administration for the work he did there. The President’s chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton, spoke before the SFRC hearing chaired by Senator Menendez. Mr. Connaughton was part of the President’s delegation who attended the second week of the Bali Conference. Because of the Senate schedule, Senator Kerry flew 40 hours round trip to spend 36 hours as the sole US Congressional representative to the conference. At a SFRC hearing earlier this year, Mr. Connaughton, who represented President Bush said:
“I would particularly also want to call out thanks to Senator Kerry for coming to Bali. I would note that the remarks he gave in Bali were very constructive in helping to educate the international community on the needs, what it would take for America to move forward together in a bi-partisan way. I thought those remarks were very well received. Senator Kerry, thank you for that.”
Listening to the hearing, the Senator is praised for his leadership on this issue by both Republicans and Democrats.
http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/hearings/2008/hrg080124p.htmlHere was even stronger praise from an earth day SFRC hearing: Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat (around 4 minutes in) said:
"The fact that we had a treaty was significantly due to the fact that Senator Kerry was there. He was a virtual part of our negotiating team, without his day and night support and lobbying of the EU. we would not have gotten a treaty.
"http://www.kerryvision.net/2008/04/in_defense_of_treehuggers.html#comments. (I was surprised to see this on Kerryvision because I had heard nothing on this and it was the same day Kerry did an amazing job on the Future of the Internet hearing.
On another issue - healthcare, the Clinton used Kerry's and Kennedy's efforts on S-CHIP and its precursor bill. Given Kerry's position on the Finance committee and his expertize - he will play a role. The fouth issue is the economy - and there no one has had a better view of what to do than Kerry outlined in his Faneuil Hall speech on economy. Compare Kerry's comments on the controversial issue of trade agreements to the jingoist isolationism of some Democrats or the blatant self interest of a former President, who consults with Columbia's Uribe. Kerry sees trade agreements potentially being used to fight for international workers - and sees it as the only way to help US workers. Kerry is one of the few people speaking about this honestly and intelligently.
"And, just as important, we have to promote workers’ rights abroad — because it’s right — and because it’s the only way to create a level playing field for U.S. exports.
American labor leaders understand this. Andy Stern, head of SEIU, has been to China six times in five years. As President, George Bush has only been there once — and I’m sure he didn’t once mention worker’s rights. James Hoffa, of the Teamsters union, sees China as a new frontline for the labor movement. He understands that, at its worst, the global economy is a race to the bottom that pulls the rug out from under American workers.
So we have to make it a race for the top — because globalization isn’t going to go away. We need to put our stamp on it and create a fair playing field — because empowering America’s workers means stepping up to bat for workers everywhere."
http://www.johnkerry.com/2007/10/1/faneuil-hall-speech-plan-for-a-21st-century-economic-strategy
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