Jon Stewart on John Kerry: Zzzzzzzzz

John Kerry apparently wanted to be Secretary of State for President Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton got the job, and Kerry had to settle for being chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Nine months into Obama's term, Kerry is acting like the country's top diplomat anyway. He dashed off to Afghanistan to talk policy and elections with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The new John Kerry, with an even higher profile, has earned the scrutiny of the funny newspeople like Jon Stewart. Last night, Stewart said Kerry met with Karzai in order to use "water boring" to get him to agree to a run-off election. Kerry is seen discussing Karzai in his usually glacial speaking style.

He also may be attempting to fill the void left by the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a theory explained by the Globe last week that actually has merit. In short, Kerry is a multi-tasker who can go on diplomatic junkets at the same time as he deals with, say, climate change.