Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Secretary of State John Kerry waves to employees in the C Street Lobby during his first day at the State Department on Feb. 4, 2013 in Washington.

Secretary of State John Kerry allowed today that he has “big heels to fill.”

Kerry, addressing employees at the State Department on his first formal day on the job, pledged to focus on the safety of diplomats who work around the world and not to let politics obscure the legacy of four Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya. He spent the weekend after his Friday swearing-in ceremony making calls to allies around the world.

The former Massachusetts senator is the first white male to hold the job in 16 years.

He succeeds Hillary Clinton, former senator from New York and former first lady, who succeeded Condoleezza Rice (2005-2009), who succeeded Colin Powell (2001-2005), who succeeded Madeleine Albright (1997-2001).

“Here’s the big question after the last eight years,” Kerry told the hundreds of employees who crowded the lobby of the Harry S. Truman building. “Can a man actually run the State Department? As the saying goes, I have big heels to fill.”

Kerry thanked Clinton and President Barack Obama “for his trust in me to take on this awesome task.”

Original post is John Kerry: ‘Big Heels to Fill’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Gianluigi Guercua/AFP via Getty Images

A Libyan woman raises her ink stained finger as she leaves a polling station after voting for Libya's General National Assembly in Tripoli on July 7, 2012.

Written by Flavia Krause-Jackson in New York

Even after a bruising week on Capitol Hill ducking cameras, Susan Rice has kept her voice alive on Twitter.

Today was no exception.

As @ambassadorrice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations branded the world body’s recognition of Palestine as an observer state “unfortunate & counterproductive.” With her trademark bluntness, she typed:

“Progress towards a just & lasting two-state solution cannot be made by pressing a green voting button in NY.’

and: “Long after the votes have been cast & speeches forgotten, it’s the Palestinians & Israelis who must still talk – and listen – to each other. ”
At one time disdainful of Twitter, the aspiring secretary of  state is a convert to the micro-blogging site, where she has more followers than  @VP Joe Biden and three times the number of that other famous Rice, Condoleezza.

The controversy surrounding her infamous Sept. 16 comments about the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Beghazi, Libya,  has only boosted her popularity, and she now is edging toward the 230,000 mark.

Online — as in real life — she has fans as well as haters.

The 140-character limit on Twitter lends itself to Rice’s own personal style.

“I guess you could say I’m plainspoken,” she  told her Stanford alumni magazine in an interview in January 2000. “I can be diplomatic when I have to be. But I don’t have a lot of patience for B.S.”

Disgusted that Russia and China prevented the #UN Security Council from fulfilling its sole purpose, she typed furiously off her BlackBerry after a double veto on Syria. The so-called referendum yesterday in #Syria was clearly a sham, she wrote about President Bashar al-Assad’s efforts to address the unrest.

She has tweeted around the world. On a surprise visit to Libya, she said: #Libyan #women kick butt. On a trip to Kenya with colleagues from the Security Council, she told the Somali president: “get your act together.”

Still, her missives are not all about work.

At the end of the Jazz Day concert at the UN with Stevie Wonder, she mused:

“The General Assembly Hall has never been so cool and may never be again. #JazzDay”

Some are even intensely personal, such as the message on Jan. 27, when she gave her deceased father, Emmett Rice, a shout-out about a movie night. She tweeted: “My family & I saw #RedTails last weekend. Riveting, action-packed & moving film. Made me even more proud of my late Dad, a Tuskegee Airman.”

Original post is Rice Tweets: Libyan Women Kick… by Political Capital.

Photograph by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/MCT/Getty Images

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference.

The divide between the impoverished and privileged in the United States is widening, with a society of once great ideals following a disturbing path toward an unsustainable future — a nation in need of “restoration.”

A new regime of educational accountability is the solution to changing the nation’s course — with stringent standards and testing for schoolchildren, appropriate pay for the most talented teachers, a choice of schools for children attending inadequate classes and an embracement of technology.

This was the message that Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, delivered this morning in his keynote address to nearly 1,000 people assembled for a two-day national summit of his Foundation for Excellence in Education in Washington.

There is an unmistakable political message in this as well.

Bush, whose two terms as governor in Florida from 1999 to 2007 were distinguished by his commitment to an “A-Plus” plan for education that rewarded higher-performing public schools, is widely viewed as one of the Republican Party’s top prospects for a presidential campaign in 2016. And, while he has remained mum about any plans for that following the loss of Republican Mitt Romney on Nov. 6, Bush did meet with some of his longtime political and policy advisers in Washington on the eve of this annual conference — including Neil Newhouse, a Washington-area pollster who campaigned for Romney this year and has served Bush in the past.

(Newhouse polled for Bush’s gubernatorial campaigns in 1998 and 2002, and his partner at Public Opinion Strategies, Bill McInturff, polled  for Bush’s first bid in 1994. The gathering of Newhouse and other past advisers here is a regular event for Bush when he’s in town, Bush associates say — calling any reading of the meeting of the “alums”  as a political sign ridiculous. Newhouse called it an informal gathering of about two dozen mostly policy-oriented people over drinks, with no speeches by Bush or anyone else in that open-doored room.)

Still, Bush is embellishing a message on which his older brother, former President George W. Bush, campaigned for president in 2000: The Texas governor proposed a national regime of school accountability, contending that the nation must combat “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” He pursued that during his first year, winning passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, a law signed as the nation’s attention was suddenly turned to terrorism by the attacks of September 11, 2001. The law was enacted by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, though it since has become a target of ridicule for “teaching to the test,” with states complaining that the federal government never supplied the financing necessary to help them meet the national standards.

It’s a durable message for a post-Iraq, and ultimately post-Afghanistan campaign — with the 2016 presidential campaign offering potential anew for a contest centered on domestic issues. Bush, who today called himself “a Texan by birth and a Floridian by choice,” has been pursuing education reform since 1994, when he lost his first election as governor and started a charter school in Miami with the leader of the Urban League there.

“He was a principled governor, principled politician,” said Phil Handy, an Orlando business consultant who chaired Bush’s campaigns. Handy credits Bush with a series of accolades that sound bumper-sticker-ready: “Persistence, courage, principle, strategic thinking.” He likes to say “the job is never done,” Handy told the ballroom crowd at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington today. This room with representatives from 45 states, he said,“attests to the fact that the job isn’t done.”

That job, as Bush tells it, is getting a nation back on track. And it starts in the classroom.

It is, he said, “a cause greater than ourselves” — the “restoration” of America, founded on education.

“Past is prologue… and history has a way of repeating itself, so learning from history is important,” said Bush, citing a recently read book by the sociologist Charles Murray about “this great challenge that faces our nation.” The U.S., Bush said, has moved from a nation of shared ideals to “a country that is changing not for the better.”

“We have these huge gaps in income,” he said, with “people born into poverty who will stay in poverty.”

“This ideal of who we are as a nation… it’s going away, it’s leaving us,” he said, maintaining that “there is one path that can change this course… a child-centered education.”

“Where is the outrage, where is the shame of this?” Bush asked in his keynote address to the fifth annual series of foundation conferences that have roamed from Washington in election years to other venues such as San Francisco. “This is not the America that we love… We ought to shake the complacency off of us… to challenge the complacency of the time.”

“I would suggest to you that high standards — I’m not kidding standards — is the first step,” he said, calling for a system of common measurements nationally and teacher evaluations based on their professional skills, not their union membership or tenure. Those standards, the offering of choices such as charter schools and tuition vouchers and technology that allows students to advance at their own pace are the key, he said. “If we stay true to these five ideals… we can reverse this trend and shake the complacency.”

“All children are not above average… I know that will be a shock to a lot of people,” he said, yet testing will reveal who needs the most improvement. “We’ll have a challenge — will we have the courage to stay the course, to faithfully implement higher standards… and recognize the fact that too many of our children are lagging behind…. We have to start with higher expectations for the next generation.

“If we’ve learned one lesson from reform, it is this: we continually underestimate children…. It will take some adjustment but our kids will rise to the challenge,” Bush said. “We reward the things we want more of… We are not as happy when there is mediocrity… and when there is failure, we should have no tolerance for it.”

The words are familiar.

We’ve heard them from this Bush since 1994, in Florida and at his national conferences. We heard them from his brother from Texas in 2000. And we heard them again today in Washington, a few blocks from the White House.

Original post is Jeb Bush’s American `Restoration’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Damon Winter/The New York Times via Redux

A photograph of Mitt Romney at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

Updated 12:08 p.m.

Mitt Romney took a break from speech prep today to mingle with top donors at an exclusive resort in St. Petersburg, across the bay from the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Romney’s most prolific fundraisers were told this morning that the candidate and vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan were possible guests at a lunch featuring former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Romney and Ryan arrived around noon at the Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort and Golf Club.

The top financiers — as many as 1,500 were expected in Tampa this week — are enjoying a special slate of events that includes prime convention hall seating and hospitality suites in two areas.

Lisa Lerer contributed to this post

Original post is Romney Takes Convention Time Out to Woo Donors in St. Petersburg by Political Capital.

Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Carlos Mendez of the Puerto Rico delegation at the Republican National Convention.

A multicultural stage in Tampa tonight for the run-up to the running mate:

This is the convention of a party lacking the support of Hispanic Americans — with less than one third of Latinos voicing support for the party’s presidential candidate in opinion polling. It is trailing among African Americans — with nine in 10 black voters voicing support for the Democratic president. Yet the convention stage in Tampa tonight presented a diverse picture for the national viewing audience.

Mike Huckabee, the former Baptist preacher and governor of Arkansas who ran for president in 2008, joined Condolleeza Rice, the first African-American woman secretary of state, and Susana Martinez, the governor of New Mexico and first Hispanic-American woman elected governor of a U.S. state.

Huckabee delivered a message for a Christian audience not thoroughly comfortable with the religion of the Republican presidential nominee: Mitt Romney is a Mormon. Huckabee, who has continued in public life as a Fox News host, said he’s less concerned about where Romney takes his family to church than with where Romney will take the country.

Rice delivered a message of hope.

“Ours has been a belief in opportunity, and it has been a constant struggle, long and hard, up and down, to try to extend the American dream to all,” Rice told the convention tonight, with a reminder of her own life’s story. and this suggestion: “We need to show… that we are a compassionate nation of immigrants.”

Martinez said: “In many ways, Mitt Romney and I are very different,” yet they share the same goal of “success.”

The three prepared the stage for Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin who looks a lot more like Romney. Ryan echoed Huckabee’s words on religion — the best preachers teach by example, he said, and Romney sets one every day.

Original post is Cultural Bridge Over Troubled Water by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Sommerdorf/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP Photo

Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love introduces herself at a training session for women aspiring to get into politics in Sandy, Utah.

Among the prime-time speakers at the National Republican Convention in Tampa this week:

Mia Love, the 37-year-old female mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah.

Love, who is Mormon and of Haitian heritage, was among the U.S. House recruits identified by leaders of the National Republican Congressional Committee who might help Republicans tighten their grip of control by holding their current seats and ousting additional Democratic incumbents, they say.

Love is “a candidate who breaks a lot of molds,” says Guy Harrison, NRCC executive director.

She is scheduled to speak just after 7:00 pm EDT today, the effective opening day of the day-delayed convention.

In the aftermath of comments by Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin about women, abortion and “legitimate rape” that caused a furor within the party, the Republican National Committee is trying to highlight its roster of female speakers, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who also is African American, as well as Nikki Haley, the Indian-American governor of South Carolina.

Love is challenging six-term incumbent Democrat Jim Matheson. While polls show Love behind, the NRCC has designated her as one of their “young gun” candidates and has already reserved more than $1 million in television advertising time in the district, according to NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay.

Original post is Republicans Boost Women on Parade by Political Capital.

Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Mitt and Ann Romney in Freeland, Michigan.

Top donors to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are gathered in Park City, Utah for a weekend-long retreat that offers the chance to mingle with campaign strategists, party officials and the candidate himself.

The event features private meetings and strategy sessions influential players in Republican politics: strategist Karl Rove, Arizona Senator John McCain, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ohio Senator Rob Portman.

Donors get personal time with the candidate and his family. There’s a cook-out scheduled tonight with Romney at Olympic Park, a tea tomorrow with his wife, Ann, and golf on Sunday at the private Red Ledges club.

The price tag: A personal donation of $50,000 or pledge to raise $250,000 for Romney’s White House bid.

The level of access given to donors this weekend is not unusual for the Romney campaign, which has spent weeks on an intensive fundraising blitz. Top donors get access to weekly strategy calls from campaign officials and top Republican supporters. Potential donors have been invited to Romney’s New Hampshire vacation home on Lake Winnipesaukee for lunch and boat rides.

This weekend’s retreat is also being held on familiar ground. Romney owned a seven-bedroom, 9,500 square-foot log cabin in the resort area before selling it during the run-up to his second presidential bid.

Original post is Top Romney Donors Descend on Utah Town for Exclusive Weekend by Political Capital.