GRAND ADMIRAL KERRY TO SPEAK – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  Kerry will speak today to outline the Obama-Kerry vision of an Israel-Palestinian peace agreement.

The act itself is unbelievably tacky and small-time.  Great nations do not announce major foreign-policy positions in the last three weeks of an administration.  And decent presidents do not try to tie the hands of their successors. 

Obama has been in office for eight years.  Why now, as the moving vans are pulling up to the White House, does he have his secretary of state announce a new vision for the Mideast?  The answer is easy.  He no longer has to submit any of his ideas to the American people through elections.  He's taking the route of political cowards, the route of no political risks.

Obama tried the same stunt when announcing that the Iran nuclear deal would be treated as an executive agreement, rather than a treaty.  All previous arms agreements had been treaties, ratified by the Senate.  Obama knew that the Iran deal was unpopular, so, poof, it suddenly became a non-treaty, meaning it didn't have to be ratified by the Senate.  And it was signed by Obama and delivered to Iran.

We await Kerry's oration with no sense of anticipation.  And we await a new administration that will understand the American tradition, and act with some class.

December 28,  2016