Kerry has been chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 2009. | POLITICO Screen grab Obama nominates Kerry for State

President Barack Obama on Friday called Sen. John Kerry “a perfect choice” to lead American diplomacy forward as he nominated the Massachusetts Democrat to be the next secretary of state.

“He is not going to need a lot of on-the-job training,” Obama said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, with Kerry by his side. “He has earned the respect and trust of his Senate colleagues, Democrats and Republicans. I think it’s fair to say few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers or grasp our policies as firmly as John Kerry.”


( PHOTOS: John Kerry’s career)

If confirmed by the Senate, Kerry would replace Hillary Clinton, who led the State Department for Obama’s first term. Clinton, who has been ill, was not at the event, but Obama said he had spoken with her and she had conveyed that “she could not be more excited about the announcement that I’m making.”

Obama told the longtime senator that he knows “it won’t be easy to leave the Senate that you love,” but that he knows Kerry will be “outstanding” in his new position.

Kerry is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and would have overseen confirmations hearings for anyone other than himself. “I guess you won’t be able to actually appear and preside at the same time, so we’ll have to figure out how that works,” Obama said.

Kerry did not speak at the announcement.

Kerry’s Republican colleagues have indicated that the confirmation process will be smooth — far easier than the one United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice would have faced had Obama nominated her. Rice withdrew her name from contention last week. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that he thinks “most people are going to have a favorable impression” of Kerry during the process.

( PHOTOS: Who’s talking about Hillary 2016?)

Friday’s announcement did not include a replacement for Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, the most-discussed option, has come under increasing fire from supporters of Israel and some Republicans. Seeking to calm some criticism, he issued an apology to POLITICO Friday for referring to a U.S. ambassador as “openly aggressively gay” in a 1998 interview.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — who along with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) was most vocal in opposing Rice — jokingly referred to Kerry as “Mr. Secretary” during a recent press conference.

McCain said Friday he has “confidence in John Kerry’s ability to carry out the job … but the hearings and votes are what really matters.” Graham described Kerry as “a very solid choice by the president” who has extensive experience in foreign policy.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) indicated Friday that he’s likely to support Kerry’s nomination.

“I don’t see any reason right now why I would oppose Sen. Kerry’s nomination. I’m likely to support it. I look forward to the hearing. I guess we ought to go through the hearing,” Cornyn told POLITICO.

The nomination of Kerry, the senior senator from Massachusetts, sets off a scramble to fill his seat — first for a temporary nominee and then for candidates in a special election. Ted Kennedy Jr., a son of the late senator, has been discussed as a possible replacement, as has Kennedy’s widow, Vicki Kennedy, who could be a “placeholder” appointment. Former Gov. Michael Dukakis has also been discussed as a possible placeholder. Retiring Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told POLITICO this week that he wouldn’t say no to an appointment.

On the Republican side, the leading candidate would be Sen. Scott Brown, who first won his seat in the special election to replace Ted Kennedy and last month lost his race to Elizabeth Warren.

For Kerry, 69, the secretary of state job would cap a career that began with four years of Navy service during the Vietnam War, followed by a period of high-profile, anti-war activism that helped launch his political career. “In a sense, John’s entire life has prepared him for this role,” Obama said Friday, noting that Kerry’s father served in the foreign service.

Kerry ran an unsuccessful campaign for a seat representing Massachusetts in the House, worked as an assistant district attorney and was the state’s lieutenant governor before being elected to the Senate in 1984.

Kerry has served on the Foreign Relations Committee throughout his time in the Senate, and has been the chairman since 2009.

( Also on POLITICO: Obama avoids fight over Susan Rice)

Since losing his presidential race against George W. Bush in 2004, Kerry’s ambitions shifted from the White House to Foggy Bottom. After Obama picked then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Joe Biden as his running mate, attention turned to Kerry as a possible Obama secretary of state. Kerry not only had foreign policy experience, but had tapped Obama to give his career-making 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address and had provided a key early endorsement to Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries.

Though he’d hoped to be picked as Obama’s first secretary of state, Kerry remained an ally of the administration and played Mitt Romney in the mock debate sessions during the 2012 campaign. He initially took it easy on the president — generating concern that the senator was more interested in trying to shore up the secretary of state job in a second term than in helping the president prepare for debates, according to “The End of the Line,” an eBook published in collaboration between POLITICO and Random House. But, in time, Kerry proved to be a strong sparring partner for Obama.

“Of course nothing brings two people closer together than weeks of debate prep,” Obama joked Friday. “John, I’m looking forward to working with you instead of debating you.”

As Rice faced criticism this fall for her comments about Benghazi, Kerry defended her record.

“She is a remarkable public servant for whom the liberation of the Libyan people has been a personal issue and a public mission,” Kerry said in September. “She’s an enormously capable person who has represented us at the United Nations with strength and character.”

Rice removed herself from consideration for the post on Dec. 13, saying she wanted to avoid a “very politicized” nomination fight that would distract from the president’s agenda.

Rice, who advised the 2008 Obama campaign on foreign policy, was widely seen as the president’s preferred pick, someone with a similar worldview and personal rapport. But she angered Republicans with her Sept. 16 appearances on the Sunday shows, when she described a spontaneous demonstration — and not terrorism — as the cause of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that left four Americans dead.

Clinton has long said she would leave the department at the end of Obama’s first term in search of rest, time to write another memoir and an opportunity to figure out the next stage of her life and whether that includes a bid for the White House in 2016. “She’s looking forward to getting back to work” at the State Department until Kerry is confirmed, Obama said, also indicating that he plans to honor Clinton’s work in the coming weeks.

If confirmed, Kerry would be the first white man to serve as secretary of state since the late Warren Christopher, who served in Bill Clinton’s first term. Since then, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Clinton have held the job.

Rice would have been the second African-American woman to hold the job — following Condoleezza Rice, of no relation — and would have offered some continuity in the diversity of Obama’s national security inner circle.

While she removed herself from contention for State, Rice is still viewed as a likely candidate to fill Thomas Donilon’s spot if he departs as national security adviser. That post does not require Senate confirmation.

Darren Samuelsohn contributed reporting.