Kerry becomes de facto diplomat for Obama

updated 6:56 p.m. ET Oct. 21, 2009

WASHINGTON - He's not president, a Cabinet member or ambassador, but Sen. John Kerry has ascended to the unofficial role of President Barack Obama's global adviser on key issues that could reshape the nation's image around the world.

Mediating Afghanistan's presidential election vaulted Kerry from the already prominent chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee into the most exclusive circle around a new president who is juggling but not resolved a variety of domestic and foreign policy matters. Beyond policy, Kerry knows how Washington works.

Kerry and Obama also share a political pedigree. Both were mentored by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who died in August.

"Obviously, Sen. Kerry is somebody who has a broad range of experience and an in-depth knowledge of issues, ranging form energy and climate change to health care to foreign policy," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. "I think it's that experience and insight that (Obama) certainly greatly values."

Obama's debut at Kerry's convention
That last bit cannot be overstated. Obama made his debut on the national stage at the 2004 presidential convention at which Democrats nominated Kerry to challenge George W. Bush's bid for a second term. Obama's speech electrified the party and the convention. It was the first time many Americans had heard of the young Illinois state senator.

"I'm here because of you," Obama wrote Kerry on the January day he was sworn in as the nation's first black president. The note is framed and hangs on Kerry's Senate office wall.

And now, Obama is leaning on Kerry to help shape his foreign policy. The two men met at the White House Wednesday just hours after Kerry returned from Afghanistan, where he played a crucial role in persuading President Hamid Karzai to accept a run-off vote after a fraud-plagued election.

The Massachusetts Democrat said he told Obama it wouldn't make "common sense" to decide whether more U.S. troops should go to Afghanistan without knowing the election results.

Kerry brushed off a question about how it felt to be the de facto secretary of state.

"That's an unfair characterization. I don't think it's appropriate, de facto whatever whatever," he said. Kerry called his participation in the talks an act of luck, in that he was in the region at the time on a fact-finding mission.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Kerry said, "embraced" and encouraged his role in what became intensely personal and emotional talks with Karzai. Kerry said he was in touch with Clinton constantly while he was there.

"I thought it was important that I not take steps in some freelancing way," Kerry said. "She encouraged me to stay at it and to stay engaged in it and I think we worked as an effective team."

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