podesta_email_00713.txt

podesta-emails 5,448 words email

P17 D6 P22 V11 P18

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQQBBGBjDtIBH6DJa80zDBgR+VqlYGaXu5bEJg9HEgAtJeCLuThdhXfl5Zs32RyB I1QjIlttvngepHQozmglBDmi2FZ4S+wWhZv10bZCoyXPIPwwq6TylwPv8+buxuff B6tYil3VAB9XKGPyPjKrlXn1fz76VMpuTOs7OGYR8xDidw9EHfBvmb+sQyrU1FOW aPHxba5lK6hAo/KYFpTnimsmsz0Cvo1sZAV/EFIkfagiGTL2J/NhINfGPScpj8LB bYelVN/NU4c6Ws1ivWbfcGvqU4lymoJgJo/l9HiV6X2bdVyuB24O3xeyhTnD7laf epykwxODVfAt4qLC3J478MSSmTXS8zMumaQMNR1tUUYtHCJC0xAKbsFukzbfoRDv m2zFCCVxeYHvByxstuzg0SurlPyuiFiy2cENek5+W8Sjt95nEiQ4suBldswpz1Kv n71t7vd7zst49xxExB+tD+vmY7GXIds43Rb05dqksQuo2yCeuCbY5RBiMHX3d4nU 041jHBsv5wY24j0N6bpAsm/s0T0Mt7IO6UaN33I712oPlclTweYTAesW3jDpeQ7A ioi0CMjWZnRpUxorcFmzL/Cc/fPqgAtnAL5GIUuEOqUf8AlKmzsKcnKZ7L2d8mxG QqN16nlAiUuUpchQNMr+tAa1L5S1uK/fu6thVlSSk7KMQyJfVpwLy6068a1WmNj4 yxo9HaSeQNXh3cui+61qb9wlrkwlaiouw9+bpCmR0V8+XpWma/D/TEz9tg5vkfNo eG4t+FUQ7QgrrvIkDNFcRyTUO9cJHB+kcp2NgCcpCwan3wnuzKka9AWFAitpoAwx L6BX0L8kg/LzRPhkQnMOrj/tuu9hZrui4woqURhWLiYi2aZe7WCkuoqR/qMGP6qP EQRcvndTWkQo6K9BdCH4ZjRqcGbY1wFt/qgAxhi+uSo2IWiM1fRI4eRCGifpBtYK Dw44W9uPAu4cgVnAUzESEeW0bft5XXxAqpvyMBIdv3YqfVfOElZdKbteEu4YuOao FLpbk4ajCxO4Fzc9AugJ8iQOAoaekJWA7TjWJ6CbJe8w3thpznP0w6jNG8ZleZ6a jHckyGlx5wzQTRLVT5+wK6edFlxKmSd93jkLWWCbrc0Dsa39OkSTDmZPoZgKGRhp Yc0C4jePYreTGI6p7/H3AFv84o0fjHt5fn4GpT1Xgfg+1X/wmIv7iNQtljCjAqhD 6XN+QiOAYAloAym8lOm9zOoCDv1TSDpmeyeP0rNV95OozsmFAUaKSUcUFBUfq9FL uyr+rJZQw2DPfq2wE75PtOyJiZH7zljCh12fp5yrNx6L7HSqwwuG7vGO4f0ltYOZ dPKzaEhCOO7o108RexdNABEBAAG0Rldpa2lMZWFrcyBFZGl0b3JpYWwgT2ZmaWNl IEhpZ2ggU2VjdXJpdHkgQ29tbXVuaWNhdGlvbiBLZXkgKDIwMjEtMjAyNCmJBDEE EwEKACcFAmBjDtICGwMFCQWjmoAFCwkIBwMFFQoJCAsFFgIDAQACHgECF4AACgkQ nG3NFyg+RUzRbh+eMSKgMYOdoz70u4RKTvev4KyqCAlwji+1RomnW7qsAK+l1s6b ugOhOs8zYv2ZSy6lv5JgWITRZogvB69JP94+Juphol6LIImC9X3P/bcBLw7VCdNA mP0XQ4OlleLZWXUEW9EqR4QyM0RkPMoxXObfRgtGHKIkjZYXyGhUOd7MxRM8DBzN yieFf3CjZNADQnNBk/ZWRdJrpq8J1W0dNKI7IUW2yCyfdgnPAkX/lyIqw4ht5UxF VGrva3PoepPir0TeKP3M0BMxpsxYSVOdwcsnkMzMlQ7TOJlsEdtKQwxjV6a1vH+t k4TpR4aG8fS7ZtGzxcxPylhndiiRVwdYitr5nKeBP69aWH9uLcpIzplXm4DcusUc Bo8KHz+qlIjs03k8hRfqYhUGB96nK6TJ0xS7tN83WUFQXk29fWkXjQSp1Z5dNCcT sWQBTxWxwYyEI8iGErH2xnok3HTyMItdCGEVBBhGOs1uCHX3W3yW2CooWLC/8Pia qgss3V7m4SHSfl4pDeZJcAPiH3Fm00wlGUslVSziatXW3499f2QdSyNDw6Qc+chK hUFflmAaavtpTqXPk+Lzvtw5SSW+iRGmEQICKzD2chpy05mW5v6QUy+G29nchGDD rrfpId2Gy1VoyBx8FAto4+6BOWVijrOj9Boz7098huotDQgNoEnidvVdsqP+P1RR QJekr97idAV28i7iEOLd99d6qI5xRqc3/QsV+y2ZnnyKB10uQNVPLgUkQljqN0wP XmdVer+0X+aeTHUd1d64fcc6M0cpYefNNRCsTsgbnWD+x0rjS9RMo+Uosy41+IxJ 6qIBhNrMK6fEmQoZG3qTRPYYrDoaJdDJERN2E5yLxP2SPI0rWNjMSoPEA/gk5L91 m6bToM/0VkEJNJkpxU5fq5834s3PleW39ZdpI0HpBDGeEypo/t9oGDY3Pd7JrMOF zOTohxTyu4w2Ql7jgs+7KbO9PH0Fx5dTDmDq66jKIkkC7DI0QtMQclnmWWtn14BS KTSZoZekWESVYhORwmPEf32EPiC9t8zDRglXzPGmJAPISSQz+Cc9o1ipoSIkoCCh 2MWoSbn3KFA53vgsYd0vS/+Nw5aUksSleorFns2yFgp/w5Ygv0D007k6u3DqyRLB W5y6tJLvbC1ME7jCBoLW6nFEVxgDo727pqOpMVjGGx5zcEokPIRDMkW/lXjw+fTy c6misESDCAWbgzniG/iyt77Kz711unpOhw5aemI9LpOq17AiIbjzSZYt6b1Aq7Wr aB+C1yws2ivIl9ZYK911A1m69yuUg0DPK+uyL7Z86XC7hI8B0IY1MM/MbmFiDo6H dkfwUckE74sxxeJrFZKkBbkEAQRgYw7SAR+gvktRnaUrj/84Pu0oYVe49nPEcy/7 5Fs6LvAwAj+JcAQPW3uy7D7fuGFEQguasfRrhWY5R87+g5ria6qQT2/Sf19Tpngs d0Dd9DJ1MMTaA1pc5F7PQgoOVKo68fDXfjr76n1NchfCzQbozS1HoM8ys3WnKAw+ Neae9oymp2t9FB3B+To4nsvsOM9KM06ZfBILO9NtzbWhzaAyWwSrMOFFJfpyxZAQ 8VbucNDHkPJjhxuafreC9q2f316RlwdS+XjDggRY6xD77fHtzYea04UWuZidc5zL VpsuZR1nObXOgE+4s8LU5p6fo7jL0CRxvfFnDhSQg2Z617flsdjYAJ2JR4apg3Es G46xWl8xf7t227/0nXaCIMJI7g09FeOOsfCmBaf/ebfiXXnQbK2zCbbDYXbrYgw6 ESkSTt940lHtynnVmQBvZqSXY93MeKjSaQk1VKyobngqaDAIIzHxNCR941McGD7F qHHM2YMTgi6XXaDThNC6u5msI1l/24PPvrxkJxjPSGsNlCbXL2wqaDgrP6LvCP9O uooR9dVRxaZXcKQjeVGxrcRtoTSSyZimfjEercwi9RKHt42O5akPsXaOzeVjmvD9 EB5jrKBe/aAOHgHJEIgJhUNARJ9+dXm7GofpvtN/5RE6qlx11QGvoENHIgawGjGX Jy5oyRBS+e+KHcgVqbmV9bvIXdwiC4BDGxkXtjc75hTaGhnDpu69+Cq016cfsh+0 XaRnHRdh0SZfcYdEqqjn9CTILfNuiEpZm6hYOlrfgYQe1I13rgrnSV+EfVCOLF4L P9ejcf3eCvNhIhEjsBNEUDOFAA6J5+YqZvFYtjk3efpM2jCg6XTLZWaI8kCuADMu yrQxGrM8yIGvBndrlmmljUqlc8/Nq9rcLVFDsVqb9wOZjrCIJ7GEUD6bRuolmRPE SLrpP5mDS+wetdhLn5ME1e9JeVkiSVSFIGsumZTNUaT0a90L4yNj5gBE40dvFplW 7TLeNE/ewDQk5LiIrfWuTUn3CqpjIOXxsZFLjieNgofX1nSeLjy3tnJwuTYQlVJO 3CbqH1k6cOIvE9XShnnuxmiSoav4uZIXnLZFQRT9v8UPIuedp7TO8Vjl0xRTajCL PdTk21e7fYriax62IssYcsbbo5G5auEdPO04H/+v/hxmRsGIr3XYvSi4ZWXKASxy a/jHFu9zEqmy0EBzFzpmSx+FrzpMKPkoU7RbxzMgZwIYEBk66Hh6gxllL0JmWjV0 iqmJMtOERE4NgYgumQT3dTxKuFtywmFxBTe80BhGlfUbjBtiSrULq59np4ztwlRT wDEAVDoZbN57aEXhQ8jjF2RlHtqGXhFMrg9fALHaRQARAQABiQQZBBgBCgAPBQJg Yw7SAhsMBQkFo5qAAAoJEJxtzRcoPkVMdigfoK4oBYoxVoWUBCUekCg/alVGyEHa ekvFmd3LYSKX/WklAY7cAgL/1UlLIFXbq9jpGXJUmLZBkzXkOylF9FIXNNTFAmBM 3TRjfPv91D8EhrHJW0SlECN+riBLtfIQV9Y1BUlQthxFPtB1G1fGrv4XR9Y4TsRj VSo78cNMQY6/89Kc00ip7tdLeFUHtKcJs+5EfDQgagf8pSfF/TWnYZOMN2mAPRRf fh3SkFXeuM7PU/X0B6FJNXefGJbmfJBOXFbaSRnkacTOE9caftRKN1LHBAr8/RPk pc9p6y9RBc/+6rLuLRZpn2W3m3kwzb4scDtHHFXXQBNC1ytrqdwxU7kcaJEPOFfC XIdKfXw9AQll620qPFmVIPH5qfoZzjk4iTH06Yiq7PI4OgDis6bZKHKyyzFisOkh DXiTuuDnzgcu0U4gzL+bkxJ2QRdiyZdKJJMswbm5JDpX6PLsrzPmN314lKIHQx3t NNXkbfHL/PxuoUtWLKg7/I3PNnOgNnDqCgqpHJuhU1AZeIkvewHsYu+urT67tnpJ AK1Z4CgRxpgbYA4YEV1rWVAPHX1u1okcg85rc5FHK8zh46zQY1wzUTWubAcxqp9K 1IqjXDDkMgIX2Z2fOA1plJSwugUCbFjn4sbT0t0YuiEFMPMB42ZCjcCyA1yysfAd DYAmSer1bq47tyTFQwP+2ZnvW/9p3yJ4oYWzwMzadR3T0K4sgXRC2Us9nPL9k2K5 TRwZ07wE2CyMpUv+hZ4ja13A/1ynJZDZGKys+pmBNrO6abxTGohM8LIWjS+YBPIq trxh8jxzgLazKvMGmaA6KaOGwS8vhfPfxZsu2TJaRPrZMa/HpZ2aEHwxXRy4nm9G Kx1eFNJO6Ues5T7KlRtl8gflI5wZCCD/4T5rto3SfG0s0jr3iAVb3NCn9Q73kiph PSwHuRxcm+hWNszjJg3/W+Fr8fdXAh5i0JzMNscuFAQNHgfhLigenq+BpCnZzXya 01kqX24AdoSIbH++vvgE0Bjj6mzuRrH5VJ1Qg9nQ+yMjBWZADljtp3CARUbNkiIg tUJ8IJHCGVwXZBqY4qeJc3h/RiwWM2UIFfBZ+E06QPznmVLSkwvvop3zkr4eYNez cIKUju8vRdW6sxaaxC/GECDlP0Wo6lH0uChpE3NJ1daoXIeymajmYxNt+drz7+pd jMqjDtNA2rgUrjptUgJK8ZLdOQ4WCrPY5pP9ZXAO7+mK7S3u9CTywSJmQpypd8hv 8Bu8jKZdoxOJXxj8CphK951eNOLYxTOxBUNB8J2lgKbmLIyPvBvbS1l1lCM5oHlw WXGlp70pspj3kaX4mOiFaWMKHhOLb+er8yh8jspM184= =5a6T -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- *​**Correct The Record Thursday October 2, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:* *Tweets:* *Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: "We count you as family," @TAPS4America <https://twitter.com/TAPS4America> founder Bonnie Carroll told Clinton, "and we love you a great deal." http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-emotional-at-event-for-families-of-fallen-military/ … <http://t.co/Cri8cqzkoX> [10/2/14, 12:38 p.m. EDT <https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/517715186250039297>] *Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: "It's really important to me that we never forget your loved ones and we never forget you." @HillaryClinton <https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-emotional-at-event-for-families-of-fallen-military/ … <http://t.co/Cri8cqzkoX> [10/2/14, 12:09 p.m. EDT <https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/517707878656778240>] *Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: VIDEO: @HillaryClinton <https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> honors military families http://correctrecord.org/hillary-clinton-honors-military-families/ … <http://t.co/cJJGEBhPOX> via @nytpolitics <https://twitter.com/nytpolitics> [10/2/14, 12:02 pm. EDT <https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/517706139161473024>] *Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton <https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> Gets Close, Candid With Military Families via @rubycramer <https://twitter.com/rubycramer> http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/hillary-clinton-gets-close-candid-with-military-families#41l0lm2 … <http://t.co/am6Reve6ix> [10/2/14, 10:06 a.m. EDT <https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/517677081355124736>] *Headlines:* *ABC News: “Hillary Clinton Comforts Military Families Who’ve Lost Loved Ones” <http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/10/hillary-clinton-comforts-military-families-whove-lost-loved-ones/>* “In her first public appearance since the weekend birth of granddaughter Charlotte, Hillary Clinton spoke at an event this evening in New York for an organization that cares for the families of fallen military members, who greeted her with moving stories of their loved ones.” *CBS News: “Hillary Clinton ‘emotional’ at event for families of fallen military” <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-emotional-at-event-for-families-of-fallen-military/>* “Hillary Clinton received a lifetime achievement award from a group that provides support for the families of fallen military service members on Wednesday, thanking the survivors for sharing their often heart-wrenching stories and praising the organization's work.” *Vogue: “State of Play: John Kerry’s High-Stakes Year” <http://www.vogue.com/1414623/john-kerry-secretary-of-state/>* “Kerry began addressing each with gusto. ‘The way he views it is that Secretary Clinton was secretary at a time when we had to repair our relationship with the world,’ says State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki. ‘He’s building on a lot of the work she has done.’ (‘I telephone Hillary here and there and ask her for her thoughts about things,’ Kerry says. ‘I have a lot of admiration and friendship for her.’)” *The Hill blog: Briefing Room: “Priebus: GOP women worth 'bragging' about” <http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/219561-priebus-gop-does-bad-job-bragging-about-women>* “The comments come with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presumed to be Democratic frontrunner for president in 2016. ‘She doesn't poll as well as you would think with women,’ Priebus said. ‘We need to do better [...but] women, as of today, they don't have a sizable advantage in the Democratic Party over the Republican Party, as much as that narrative has sunk in.” *Chicago Sun-Times: “Dungeons & Dragons Kickstarter campaign features Hillary Clinton” <http://politics.suntimes.com/article/washington/dungeons-dragons-kickstarter-campaign-features-hillary-clinton/thu-10022014>* “Here are three things that don’t normally go together: Hillary Clinton, Kickstarter and Dungeons & Dragons. For now, they do because one group wants to raise money to hire Clinton to speak and ‘help us bring our fantasy world to life.’” *Articles:* *ABC News: “Hillary Clinton Comforts Military Families Who’ve Lost Loved Ones” <http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/10/hillary-clinton-comforts-military-families-whove-lost-loved-ones/>* By Shushanna Walshe October 2, 2014, 10:22 p.m. EDT In her first public appearance since the weekend birth of granddaughter Charlotte, Hillary Clinton spoke at an event this evening in New York for an organization that cares for the families of fallen military members, who greeted her with moving stories of their loved ones. “This a great privilege, but it is also for me emotional as we celebrate the birth of our granddaughter and as I look out and see all of you who are thinking of your loved ones and the life that he or she lived,” Clinton said at the event for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors or TAPS, a group that supports, connects and provides grief resources to military families who have lost loved ones. In the introduction, TAPS president Bonnie Carroll told Clinton she is “family” and gave her the organization’s Lifetime Service Award. Clinton spoke at another event for the group in 2006 and has served as an honorary chairwoman. Throughout her speech, some in the crowd became emotional and many of them took to the rope line afterwards to share stories of their deceased family members and show photos, with several telling her heartbreaking stories. Some just wanted to take a photo with Clinton, but many more had a story to tell. One woman, after telling the former secretary of state about her fallen husband, said, “I miss him every day, thank you for coming.” Clinton listened to their stories and expressed her condolences, saying over and over again, “I am so, so sorry,” at times holding the family members’ hands. One man who urged Clinton to run for president also told her about his nephew who he said “got the run around” and “got screwed at the VA,” referring to the Department of Veterans Affairs. “We need to fix the VA and we need to fix the mental health system,” he told her. Clinton nodded in agreement. In her speech, she told the families “it’s really important to me that we never forget your loved ones and we never forget you.” “At a time when sometimes we seem divided and people seem to be arguing all the time we really have to take stock of how blessed we are and grateful for the men and women who serve us and be thankful that we have through all of our ups and downs and our challenges continues to stand for the values that unite us: freedom and democracy and opportunity and by supporting you all who will serve in the future,” Clinton told the crowd at Stella 43 Trattoria, a restaurant inside the iconic New York City Macy’s store. *CBS News: “Hillary Clinton ‘emotional’ at event for families of fallen military” <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-emotional-at-event-for-families-of-fallen-military/>* By Jake Miller October 2, 2014, 10:16 a.m. EDT Hillary Clinton received a lifetime achievement award from a group that provides support for the families of fallen military service members on Wednesday, thanking the survivors for sharing their often heart-wrenching stories and praising the organization's work. The award was presented in New York City by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a group that provides "peer-based emotional support" and "grief and trauma resources" for the families of the departed, according to its website. Clinton has previously served as the group's honorary chairwoman. Clinton said the event was particularly "emotional" for her, according to the Associated Press, especially given the birth of her granddaughter last Friday. It was the former secretary of state's first public appearance since her daughter Chelsea gave birth to a baby girl, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky. "This a great privilege, but it is also for me emotional as we celebrate the birth of our granddaughter and as I look out and see all of you who are thinking of your loved ones and the life that he or she lived," she said, according to ABC News. "It's really important to me that we never forget your loved ones and we never forget you." Clinton nodded at her work on the Armed Services Committee when she was a senator from New York, recalling her work with TAPS and other groups to increase survivor benefits for the families of fallen service members. "We fought, we cajoled," she said, adding that they eventually secured an increase in immediate survivor benefits from $12,000 to $100,000. Several attendees shared their stories of loss with Clinton. One man described his nephew's frustrating experience with the Veteran's Affairs medical system, which has been buffeted this year by scandal after reports revealed crushing wait times and employee misconduct at VA facilities. "If you run, and I hope you do, fix the VA and fix the mental health system," he said, according to Buzzfeed. "My nephew was lost, and let me tell you something...he really got screwed." Another woman told Clinton it had been two years since her brother's suicide. "Did he get any help at all?" Clinton asked. "Not the right help," the woman said. Bonnie Carroll, the president and founder of TAPS, thanked Clinton for her previous work with the group. "We count you as family," she told Clinton," and we love you a great deal." *Vogue: “State of Play: John Kerry’s High-Stakes Year” <http://www.vogue.com/1414623/john-kerry-secretary-of-state/>* By Suzy Hansen October 2, 2014, 8:00 a.m. EDT [Subtitle:] Through one international crisis after another, America’s Secretary of State is waging a marathon campaign of high-stakes diplomacy. Back in June, Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to the tiny French village of Saint-Briac-sur-Mer to do something he never could have done while running for president—celebrate his European roots. Kerry’s mother, a descendant of the Forbes shipping family, grew up here on an estate called Les Essarts, which was destroyed by the Nazis and then rebuilt as an enormous blue-shuttered château the family still owns today. “Johnnie,” as one of his cousins, the town’s former mayor, calls him, spent his boyhood summers in this idyllic, immaculate place: all stone buildings, cobbled streets, épiceries with bright awnings, and women in Jean Seberg striped jerseys outside the Bar Tabac de la Poste. Having come from the seventieth-anniversary commemorations of the Normandy invasion, Kerry, 70 himself and slender as the Tin Man, is dressed in a midnight-blue suit and a pink-orange tie, his dense, graying hair as immovable as ever. He glances toward the windswept Brittany coastline and then at the crowds trailing his convoy, eager to see an eminent American so intimately connected with their village give a speech about the war. I have been traveling with Kerry for several days—from Warsaw to Beirut to France—and though I have caught glimpses of his playful side, the Secretary of State has largely lived up to his reputation for reserve. In the backseat of his SUV, we discuss the elaborate Normandy festivities at Omaha Beach, where President Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Russian president Vladimir Putin gathered to remember the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers—and Kerry is pensive. He speaks of how terrifying the invasion must have been for the soldiers. I ask if he, as a former officer, could put himself in their shoes. He shakes his head. “There was the possibility that we would be killed,” he says, referring to his tours of duty in Vietnam, “but it was more remote in that you didn’t know when you were going to be ambushed. You didn’t know when something was going to happen. In that situation”—D-day—“you know. You are watching boats blown up around you. It’s hell.” I compare the America of 70 years ago, the America that liberated France and won the admiration of the world, to the America of today, which seems more embattled and wary. It’s a moment, I suggest, “where there are accusations that America is ‘pulling back’——” “No, no! We’re not, we’re not pulling back,” he says. Kerry leans forward in his seat. “That kicks me into gear and makes me want to go out and explain more. We have to make it clearer to people. I intend to, and the president intends to. That’s what he did at West Point.” He is referring to President Obama’s much-discussed speech in May at the military college, in which he laid out a vision of American foreign policy that emphasized diplomatic engagement over the reflexive use of military force. “We have to build on that,” he continues. “And that’s what I am going to do.” But Kerry will barely get the chance. The summer will bring a cascading and surreal series of international crises, which keeps him constantly on the move. Rarely a day goes by without shocking and terrifying news: a fierce election dispute in Afghanistan that threatens to bring the country to civil war; the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner in Ukraine; a deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas; the advance across Iraq of the jihadist group ISIS, on whom President Obama authorizes air strikes in mid-August. During this jolting period Kerry will seem to be everywhere at once, engaging in negotiations, jousting with his foreign counterparts, and struggling to pull off small victories before jumping back on his plane. “I don’t think there has ever been a Secretary of State who has thrown himself into the job with as much verve and conviction as this guy has,” says Strobe Talbott, a deputy Secretary of State under President Clinton and now the president of the Washington think tank the Brookings Institution as well as a Kerry adviser. “If he can’t get a workable and acceptable compromise on a dispute, it’s very hard to imagine anybody who can.” Kerry practices just the sort of vigorous diplomacy President Obama spoke about at West Point—but his relentlessness, especially on issues as seemingly intractable as Israeli-Palestinian peace, has been bruising at times. Does America wield the influence in the world that it once did? Critics say that Kerry’s go-for-broke diplomatic style raises just this question—and that he has wasted time on problems that the U.S. cannot solve; supporters say that if Kerry achieves a breakthrough in even one of his major endeavors—say, a nuclear deal with Iran—he could be one of the most important Secretaries of State in recent history. “There’s a lot going on,” Kerry acknowledges when I meet with him over the summer in his office at the State Department. “But when you have four or five flare-ups at the same time, you’ve still got to talk to people; you’ve got to sit down with them face-to-face, look in their eyes, grab the problem, and work through it. So we’re managing. We can multitask.” It’s a tremendous amount of pressure for someone who already suffered a large-scale defeat in his political career, but Kerry seems at ease. “I feel comfortable, and I feel free,” he says of the work he’s doing now. “I feel completely liberated. But, you know . . . I was a lot better senator after I ran for president because I had done it. I had run. I came within 59,000 votes in one state”—Ohio—“so for three hours I was president.” He smiles to make sure I get what I am not completely sure is a joke. “I feel like I made a few mistakes, but I didn’t blow it,” he continues and shrugs. “The one thing I kick myself about back then is not listening to myself a few times . . . not letting it all out.” Democrats could be forgiven for feeling less sanguine about 2004. Many still consider Kerry’s loss to President George W. Bush an almost unfathomable debacle. The war in Iraq was proving disastrous at the time, and Kerry had the perfect presidential résumé: a Kennedy-like background, a record of courage in Vietnam, 20 years in the Senate. But some voters found him hard to connect to and perceived an aristocratic air that the Right mercilessly exploited. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smeared Kerry’s military record, Republicans branded him a flip-flopper on Iraq (a war he had voted for in 2002), and, in the end, Kerry lost the popular vote by 3 million. “I don’t think there’s anything harder in this life,” apart from matters of life and death, “than losing a presidential election,” says his friend former Yale classmate and State Department adviser David Thorne. “It requires determination and toughness to get back up on the horse.” After the election, Kerry largely faded from view as he returned to the Senate, chaired the Foreign Relations Committee, and recovered from his loss. “I would say he became more confident,” says his longtime chief of staff, David Wade. “That experience of running a campaign like that . . . and then losing in a pretty heartbreaking way. He came out of that experience with a great deal of conviction about how he wanted to spend his 60s and his 70s. “I also think it left him with a little sense of ‘I just don’t really give a shit,’ ” Wade adds. “People are going to make judgments, but you play a long game.” That long game has brought a kind of vindication. Today President Obama’s foreign policy happens to look much like Kerry proposed America’s should during the campaign in 2004: more modest, more interested in multilateral diplomacy and fighting terrorism on a case-by-case basis. Kerry praises what he calls President Obama’s “very careful, hard-nosed approach” to decision-making. “I am impressed by the questions he asks . . . and how he wants to know the strategy and the facts that support that choice before he makes it—not afterward.” The world is also more turbulent, multipolar, and crisis-prone than it was a decade ago. When Kerry succeeded Hillary Clinton as secretary in 2013, after President Obama’s presumed choice, Susan Rice, withdrew her name following the attacks in Ben­ghazi, Libya, he faced a dizzying list of problems. The U.S. was in the midst of messy withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Israeli-­Palestinian peace process was dead. The Arab Spring had upended American policy in the Middle East. Syria had become a humanitarian catastrophe, and Iran still posed a nuclear threat. Kerry began addressing each with gusto. “The way he views it is that Secretary Clinton was secretary at a time when we had to repair our relationship with the world,” says State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki. “He’s building on a lot of the work she has done.” (“I telephone Hillary here and there and ask her for her thoughts about things,” Kerry says. “I have a lot of admiration and friendship for her.”) At press time, Kerry had traveled some 543,687 miles, visited 55 countries, and spent almost 1,200 hours in the air. “He has chosen to tackle head-on some difficult strategic issues,” says Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former U.S. national-security adviser, “and these issues would probably deteriorate into more dangerous prospects without some serious signs of U.S. interest.” “He listens well,” says Ryan Crocker, former ambassador to Iraq, of Kerry’s diplomatic style. “He will listen to his interlocutors, understand their viewpoint, and make his points within the context of where they stand. That kind of empathy goes a long way to creating a climate in which compromise and agreement become possible. And he also has a reputation for absolute honesty and integrity. He never misleads, and he’s known for it.” There are those who call Kerry naive or arrogant for believing that he can somehow solve problems that no one else can. “I think he vastly overstates his personal ability to persuade people to do what the U.S. wants,” says Stephen Walt, an expert on foreign policy and a professor of international affairs at Harvard. “Kerry is like Madeleine Albright, who said that the U.S. is ‘the indispensable nation.’ So if a problem happens in the South China Sea or Nigeria or Ukraine, Kerry thinks there’s a solution in Washington. And he hops on a plane to try and provide it. I think that view is occasionally correct, but usually not.” Kerry’s response is that he would “rather get caught trying than never try at all” (this, incidentally, was also a favorite phrase of President Clinton’s). He acknowledges that President Obama has given him “enormous latitude. I actually thanked him a couple of months ago,” he tells me. “I said, ‘You know, Mr. President, I want to thank you for giving me the breadth to take the ball and roll with it.’ ” It’s obvious that Kerry is more suited to the diplomatic life than he ever would have been to the modern presidency. He is far less extroverted and eager to please than most politicians—and he can’t fake a folksy, telegenic style. He has a solemn air of politeness, which seems to come from a sense of duty. At a press conference in Beirut, for example, I watch a Lebanese journalist yell angrily at him because she believes Kerry’s staff has cut the time short. Kerry, halfway off the dais, stops mid-stride, eyebrows raised, and returns to the microphone. “I’m very happy to take your question,” he says with gentle amusement. On his plane, he briskly walks the aisles to say hello to members of the press, flashing a T-shirt given to him by a Lebanese security detail, posing obligingly for photos. The routine lasts for only a minute or two before he passes his huddled staff and the hulking bodyguards stowing their weapons, and returns to his cabin—back to work. Work is a constant. Only rarely do photographers catch him relaxing or kiteboarding on Nantucket, and his reading tends toward serious history and biography (though he recently made time for The Art of Fielding). For a man in his eighth decade, Kerry takes remarkably little time off—but he seems to be having a good time on the road, too. One night in Paris, I run into him outside the gilded Westin hotel near the Tuileries Garden, returning from dinner at Chez L’Ami Louis with David Thorne, his stepson André Heinz, and both men’s partners. He stands on the sidewalk extolling the virtues of the wine he’d had that evening, then poses for selfies with some eagle-eyed Boston natives. It is midnight when he disappears into the hotel bar, his staffers trailing behind him, struggling to keep up. “I really do think some of it comes out of Vietnam,” says Wade about Kerry’s drive. “He came out of Vietnam with a pretty fundamental conviction that for whatever reasons a lot of his closest friends never came home, and he did. He has this conviction of not wasting time.” Peals of laughter can be heard from his plane cabin when Kerry FaceTimes with his daughter Vanessa, a critical-care physician in Boston, and his two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, Alexander. Kerry’s other daughter, Alexandra, a film director, recently had a baby girl. “He’s been awesome, actually,” Vanessa says of Kerry as grandfather. “I have left him alone to babysit Alexander, which makes me feel really guilty. I remember asking him, ‘What are you going to do if the prime minister of Israel calls?’ And he said, ‘I’ll figure it out.’ ” “We have many late-night and early-morning phone calls, and John takes every opportunity to get home,” reports his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, whom he married in 1995 and who quickly became known for her outspokenness and humor on the campaign trail. Now 75, she suffered a seizure last summer while vacationing on Nantucket, and has been keeping out of the public eye through her recovery. “I have learned so much about the brain and the time it takes to recover from a seizure such as mine,” she adds. “I feel blessed to have the support of my husband—who quite literally lay beside me in my hospital bed last year.” Kerry’s first wife was Vanessa and Alexandra’s mother, Julia Thorne, who died of cancer in 2006. (She and Kerry divorced in 1988.) Since her death, Kerry has become assertive with parental advice. Vanessa remembers when she was getting married in 2009—Kerry was senator then—her father handed her a sketch of what resembled a wedding dress. “I don’t know what he was going for—I think it was sort of a strapless gown that was formfitting up top and flowing on the bottom. He drew on a sticky note, like, ‘This is what I think the dress should look like.’ He genuinely had been thinking about it. It’s been really sweet to see him cross some of the normal territory because we don’t have our mom.” “Most of the rest of the world doesn’t lie awake at night worrying about America’s presence; they worry about what would happen in our absence,” Kerry told the graduating class at Yale this May, sounding like the idealistic young man who signed up to serve in Vietnam. In other ways, though, he remains the heartbroken veteran who turned against the war, too. “I think the president and I share a tremendous sense of the damage that was done by the prior administration’s approach—particularly to Iraq, and its inattention to Afghanistan,” he says to me during our interview at the State Department. America’s “wars of choice . . . never should have become what they were, and never should have taken place.” His office suite, decorated with traditional Washington Federal-style furniture and Oriental rugs in patterns of scarlet and blue, overlooks the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. It’s a handsome but not particularly personal space, and I imagine Kerry prefers his plane or Boston, where he works out of an office in his Beacon Hill town house. I ask about the fears of American decline expressed so often on the political Right. “Well, first of all, there’s no empire; there’s no desire for empire. The age of empire is over,” he tells me. “What we’re looking at now is an age of alliances and partnerships.” He adds that “democracy is not on the wane. People want democracy.” What we have to be mindful of is “young people around the world being co-opted by the demagoguery of individual leaders. If we don’t find a global approach to them, we’re all going to feel the heat.” This brings terrorism into our conversation; he calls it “the instrument of choice that fills the vacuum left by inadequate governance.” His assessment of the terrorist group ISIS and their murderous tactics is unsparing: “They’re ugly. They’re really horrible—as bad as anything I’ve seen in public life. They’re willing to kill indiscriminately.” He adds that “they have proclaimed definitively that they intend to attack the West” and that countries across the Middle East—from Israel to Iran to Syria to Jordan—oppose the group: “All of us are unwilling to tolerate the rise of a jihadist ISIS.” I ask him if it’s painful to see the sectarian deterioration in Iraq. “Well, it makes me angry,” he says. “Painful is not the word I’d choose. We never should have turned it upside down. Having done so, they”—the Bush administration—“never put a political process together.” We will speak about Iraq again after the country’s embattled leader, Nouri al-Maliki, resigns, and shortly before the execution by ISIS of American journalist James Foley. Over the phone, Kerry will express some cautious optimism: “It’s moving in the right direction with Maliki stepping down peacefully.” A legitimate government, he says, “was the prerequisite for President Obama, from day one, to say now we can do something about ISIL”—an alternative name for ISIS. “The U.S. is not going to get involved in any on-the-ground combat troops . . . but we’re not going to shy away from equipping and assisting.” The fighting that broke out between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip captured Kerry’s focus like no other development this summer. In July, Fox News caught him on a live microphone speaking to his Deputy Chief of Staff Jonathan Finer and seeming to complain about the scope of Israel’s incursion into Gaza (“It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” he’ll tell Finer sarcastically). Back on air, he will quickly champion Israel’s right to defend itself, as he will even after being criticized by Israeli leaders who publicly dismiss Kerry’s efforts to broker peace. With me he defends his attempt to get a cease-fire. “The level of collateral damage that was taking place inevitably was going to turn against Israel and be harmful to the overall effort and harden people against cutting some kind of long-term agreement. So that’s why we were pushing. We continue to work at this and we’re going to, despite frustrations in one camp or another—because the stakes are very, very high.” At the end of the summer, Kerry traveled to Australia and Myanmar and declared, upon his return, that he would be turning his attention to “long-term opportunities” in that region of the world. It was a reminder that Kerry has another two years to serve as the president’s chief diplomat, and much ground still to cover. If you ask him about the legacy he hopes to leave, however, he practically snaps. “I don’t think about a legacy. I think about getting the job done as well as I can, and you and history and other people will take care of the rest of it.” But he does reflect on the past. “You know, obviously, losing the presidency is not the option of first choice,” he says and laughs, as if awed by the memory. “But you can’t get lost in it. I said, ‘I am not going to make this the defining moment of a life of involvement in public service and caring about things.’ I was a senator and had a lot I was interested in; I have a great family, a great life, and I have nothing to complain about. So I went right back in and started kicking. . . . “I love it, I really enjoy this job, it’s a great job,” he continues. “And I am excited. Look, we got the deal on chemical weapons [in Syria]; we’ve got Iran talking. We’ve got the Middle East people talking—we’ve made a lot of progress there, and I believe we’ll get back to talking.” He cocks his head pointedly, with a faint smile. “I am not finished.” *The Hill blog: Briefing Room: “Priebus: GOP women worth 'bragging' about” <http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/219561-priebus-gop-does-bad-job-bragging-about-women>* By Kevin Cirilli October 2, 2014, 10:59 a.m. EDT Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Thursday that his party is making gains among women voters, but it needs to do more "bragging" about the women in its own ranks. During a panel at George Washington University, Priebus praised GOP leaders like Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.). "We do a really bad job bragging about it," he said following his prepared remarks. "As far as putting more women up on the news on Sunday morning and making sure that we're placing people better — I think we've improved on that a lot." The comments come with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presumed to be Democratic frontrunner for president in 2016. "She doesn't poll as well as you would think with women," Priebus said. "We need to do better [...but] women, as of today, they don't have a sizable advantage in the Democratic Party over the Republican Party, as much as that narrative has sunk in. Priebus also said the party must shift its strategy in 2016 to focus more on a ground game as opposed just to raising large amounts of money. "We had become a U-Haul trailer of cash for a presidential nominee," he said of 2012. "That is a loser's strategy." Priebus said that party can't just "raise a gazillion dollars and hand it off to the presidential nominee" or engage in a "23-debate traveling circus," alluding to the 2012 Republican nominating process. " You have to be a national party obsessed over mechanics, obsessed over a ground game, over the data game," he said. *Chicago Sun-Times: “Dungeons & Dragons Kickstarter campaign features Hillary Clinton” <http://politics.suntimes.com/article/washington/dungeons-dragons-kickstarter-campaign-features-hillary-clinton/thu-10022014>* By Chad Merda October 2, 2014, 10:42 a.m. EDT Here are three things that don’t normally go together: Hillary Clinton, Kickstarter and Dungeons & Dragons. For now, they do because one group wants to raise money to hire Clinton to speak and “help us bring our fantasy world to life.” The only problem for the Dungeons & Dragons group from New York? They don’t have $200,000, which is what Clinton’s reportedly paid to speak. So naturally, they’re turning to Kickstarter to help and have launched a fundraising campaign called “Hillary Clinton: The Ultimate Adventure.” So far, they’re off to a slow start, with a little more than $200 pledged. “Everyone can benefit from Hillary’s legendary political savvy and top-notch oratory skills. Especially gamers,” writes Jared Logan, who started the effort. And really, it’s all about the D-word. “By achieving this goal, we will prove that a democracy is for the people and by the people,” Logan writes. “We will show that even the most disenfranchised and oppressed group in this country (tabletop roleplayers) can still access our nation’s leaders and speak to them face to face.” And if by some small miracle they not only raise the money, but manage to lure Clinton to New York, she’ll have to forgo the large venue she’s accustomed to — and maybe even duck to avoid hitting her head on some low beams and exposed plumbing. Why? Because she’d be speaking for an hour, “in Eric’s Dad’s basement in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.”