John Kerry spins fact that he was Obama’s second choice

John Kerry was sworn in as Secretary of State today. He took the occasion to claim that President Obama offered him the job a week before Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration.

You might think that, given the vicious anti-Americanism of his youth and his tendency to be wrong about nearly every major foreign policy issue since then, Kerry would be happy enough to get the job he has coveted for so long, without seeing a need to push back against evidence that he receoved it by default. But then, you might have thought that Kerry would be happy enough to cite his service in Vietnam without making up tales about it, such as “Christmas in Cambodia.”

Even in Kerry’s version of events leading up up to his nomination, though, he was still Obama’s second choice. His claim is that Obama offered him the job about a week before Rice withdrew. Until then, Obama wanted Rice to be his Secretary of State. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have put her name out, causing her to twist in the wind generated by severe criticism over her statements pertaining to the Benghazi killings.

Assuming Kerry is telling the truth, one wonders why Obama left Rice twisting for an additional week. Did Obama share with Rice the news that he wanted Kerry, or did he leave it to her to see the writing on the wall?

Or is Kerry once again embellishing the facts?

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