I wonder though if Kerry's long term position that American policy had gone wrong - not just under Bush but before was intentionaly soft pedaled by Kerry. Unlike 2008, 2004 was NOT a season where change could sell. We were after all at 47% thinking we were on the wrong track. Rather than blast the common assumptions that over decades led the US to fund the Contras, arm Bin Laden, etc, he spoke of the US being a good citizen in the world and obeying international law.
His April 2004 speech simply jumped to a plan consistent with a different world view -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=81173&mesg_id=81204 (there is also a very good MTP here -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=81173&mesg_id=81173 - That I wish I would have had when the Reilly/Beatty charges were made - though they didn't stick anyway.
This post made me see both 2004 and the SoS/SFRC threads in a different light. I wonder if some of the reluctance of people like Bill Clinton to enthusiastically back Kerry and the reason some people here are so negative on a Secretary of State Kerry is that there is real disagreement and even fear against boldly changing our basic foreign policy. There may be many who see Bush/Cheney as a toxic aberration, but not see a need for fundamental change - which Kerry was for in 1971, the 1980s and the 1990s to the present, changing only in how upfront he put that message.
We don't completely know how closely Obama and Kerry are on foreign policy - the rhetoric sounds very similar - and they may see things in a very similar way. If this is true, than Obama may NEED Kerry as Secretary of State, as he would need a very strong person who really does have the same goals to convincingly persuade leaders that this really is a chance for change. If Obama is really significantly more traditional and change more rhetoric than a core belief - in terms of foreign policy, Kerry is better as chair of SFRC pulling Obama towards changing - in a positive friendly way. (One Richardson poster argued repeatedly that Kerry had too much written on FP and he was too extreme. The odd thing is he/she might be seeing the same thing we saw - but be from the half of the party which saw nothing wrong with arming the Contras.)