By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : A couple of months before the US presidential election, a new website popped up on the internet urging the next president to draft India-born American journalist Fareed Zakaria for the post of secretary of state.
“We believe Fareed Zakaria is the best candidate for this job,” said an open letter to the next president posted on the website “Draft Fareed! — to help Zakaria become the next secretary of state” long before Democrat Barack Obama’s election.
“Over a career spanning two continents, two decades and two different Ivy League universities; Fareed Zakaria has defined what it means to be a modern-day foreign policy expert,” the website started by some unknown person or group said.
“Widely acclaimed as a political moderate and realist, Fareed’s interviews and writings demonstrate a rational view of the world and a keen sense of the forces shaping growth in the rest of the world.
“Please Mr. President, take our advice and seriously consider Fareed Zakaria to be your secretary of state. We’re confident you’ll agree he’s the best candidate for this important position,” the website said.
Zakaria is currently the editor of Newsweek International. He also hosts “Fareed Zakaria GPS” – an international affairs programme on CNN. In 1999, he was named among 21 most important people of the 21st century by Esquire.
In an article published in 2003 in the New York magazine, Zakaria had said: “My friends all say I’m going to be secretary of state. But I don’t see how that would be much different from the job I have now.”
Obama is said to have read Zakaria’s latest book “The Post-American World” and also appeared on his show earlier this summer. But whether he will invite Zakaria to the White House will have to be seen.