A BBC News Radio presenter and correspondent mocked US Secretary of State John Kerry for bringing musician James Taylor to Paris, evidently to make amends for missing last Sunday’s unity march. 

Barack Obama’s administration has come under withering criticism for failing to send a top U.S. official to Paris for a high-profile solidarity rally held after last week’s bloody terrorist attacks there. On Monday, Jan. 12, the White House admitted it made a mistake and scrambled to send Secretary of State John Kerry to France to help smooth over any bad feelings.

 BBC reports there were “40 world leaders” present. But President Obama wasn’t one of them; Vice-President Biden and Secretary of State Kerry apparently weren’t there, either.(...) Is there some particularly good “smart diplomacy” reason why we would be absent when so many others were present?