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OUT OF LEFT FIELD |
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Pick For 2012?
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For the Republicans
He’s the Man Who…
of TheColumnists.com
The New York Times recently got an early start on speculation about who will be the Republican nominee for President in 2012. It suggested that visits to Iowa by various Republican notables was a tipoff on how serious they were about pursuing the grand prize.
Among others, the Times catalogued these visits to Iowa;
Five visits by Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.
Three visits by Texas congressman Ron Paul; former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
One visit each by Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate; Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor; Haley Barbour, Mississippi governor; and Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor.
So who do you project as the Republican candidate to challenge President Obama in 2012? Pick one:
_____Sarah Palin
_____Mitt Romney
____ Mike Huckabee
____ Haley Barbour
_____Ron Paul
____ Tim Pawlenty
The prediction here is: none of the above.
Left Field says the Republicans will choose General David Howell Petraeus, the man in charge of the Afghanistan war now because he seemingly saved the day for President George W. Bush in Iraq, (Some 50,000 troops will remain, but who’s counting).
Everybody likes him.
In 2009 he received the Sam M. Gibbons Lifetime Achievement Award, American Legion's Distinguished Service Medal, the Union League Club of Philadelphia’s Abraham Lincoln Award, and the National Defense Industrial Association’s Eisenhower Award. He also was named as one of the “75 Best People in the World” in the October 2009 issue of Esquire Magazine. And in 2008 a poll conducted by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines named Petraeus as one of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals.
In 2010 he received the right-wing American Enterprise Institute’s Irving Kristol Award and Princeton’s James Madison Medal. The list goes on and on.
Some Iraquis call him,”King David.” He has appeared before Congress with a chest full of fruit salad, having won, at last count, 35 medals--from the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster) to the Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In a highly favorable profile of him in Vanity Fair magazine Mark Bowden wrote of his appearance before Congress, “…his uniform so laden with insignia, badges, patches, ribbons and medals that it seemed to pull him into a slight stoop...”
(I will interrupt here to wonder why military people have to flaunt their honors. Suppose a civilian showed up wearing medals and ribbons for achievements like “Prius driver,” “A’s in geometry,” “Grocery shopper,” “Visitor to all 50 states” and the like. But that is a digression).
It did not hurt Petraeus in the least--No, it helped him immeasurably with the Republicans who will be seeking a 2012 candidate--when the left wing group Moveon.org protested his appearance before Congress by running a full-page ad in The New York Times in 2007 rhyming Petraeus with “betray us.” This inspired Texas Republican John Cornyn to rush an amendment condemning the personal attack on Petraeus. It was signed by all Republican senators and 22 Democrats.
Petraeus is an acknowledged master at handling the media. In addition to Bowden in Vanity Fair, he has been written about, sometimes almost gushingly, by Trudy Rubin in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tom Ricks in The Washington Post, Michael Gordon in The New York Times and Joe Klein in Newsweek. Rubin even intimated that it was President Obama’s duty to get along with Petraeus, not vice versa.
The only person who confronted Petraeus seemingly came out a poor second. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid objected when Petraeus said there were “astonishing signs of normalcy in Baghdad” in 2007, but Reid did not dim the Petraeus halo. If the U.S. doesn’t get out of the Afghanistan quagmire by 2012, it’s not unlikely President Obama, and not Petraeus, will take the heat.
Another sign that Petraeus is a man to watch is that he has stated he is not interested in running for the Presidency. That’s de rigeur for all Presidential candidates at one time or another.
Note that an Eisenhower Award was one of his many honors cited above. That is significant because the Republicans, in the words of an astute observer I know, “will sit in a room listing Romney, Huckabee, Gingrich and the others--and everybody will fall asleep. Then someone says, ‘We need an Eisenhower.’ ”
And that cinches it for Petraeus.
©2010 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted Aug. 9, 2010.
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