Special to WorldTribune.com

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has struck out many more times than hitting safely during his career, and even spent time on the disabled list after recently breaking his leg. And while negotiating an acceptable nuclear deal with Iran won’t get the 71-year-old Kerry into the Hall of Fame, many experts believe it will be a legacy-making achievement.

“If Kerry hits one grand slam no one will remember his other strikeouts,” Karim Sadjadpour, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace analyst, told Reuters.

Among those strikeouts was his 2004 presidential election loss to George W. Bush, a lack of legislative achievement despite a 28-year Senate career, and failure to negotiate peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Kerry’s backers say he has worked tirelessly, meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif several times in several different locations. Critics say Kerry the travel merely makes it look like Kerry is desperately chasing a deal.

“Being secretary of state by odometer is a very false measure,” said Richard Armitage, a deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush.

“The administration is too eager,” added Armitage. “Iranians can smell this. And if the secretary of state is willing to airmail himself in at the 11th and a half hour every time, what incentive is it for the Iranians to give you their bottom line?”

The deadline for a final deal, under which Iran would curb its nuclear work in return for sanctions relief, is June 30.

Kerry, who became secretary of state in 2013, was not known as a deal-maker during his Senate career, but more as someone who relentlessly pursued lost causes.

“There’s a sense that he loves a mission that might lead to glory,” said a person with knowledge of Kerry’s work on an ill-fated “super committee” formed to find $1.5 trillion in government savings. “He’s like a shark; he can’t stop swimming.”

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