You can make the case that at least some of the anti-Kerry pile-on is motivated by, perhaps even cover for, the intractable differences at the heart of the dispute. (Hamas wasn’t going to rush to accept the Egypt deal.) And while Kerry’s heckuva job Bibi hot mic moment may have been dumb and counterproductive, Ronald Reagan had a more embarrassing gaffe before major diplomatic breakthroughs with the Soviet Union en route to winning the Cold War.

Somehow it is difficult to muster the same optimism about Kerry, however. He is a man in love with the sound of his own voice in an administration filled with such people, even by Washington standards. The results so far can only bring to mind Woody Allen’s quip that masturbation is sex with someone you love.

Neither Barack Obama nor George W. Bush will ever have their faces etched upon Mount Rushmore. Kerry’s singular accomplishment to this point has been to make it conceivable that their elections were not the most disastrous possible outcomes.

If we survive his tenure as secretary of state, future generations may conclude: Thank God John Kerry was never president.