IT SURFACES AGAIN – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  The Petraeus for president thing, that is.  There is constant muttering that Petraeus may emerge as the Republicans' new Eisenhower in 2012. 

Speculation has run rampant for months that Gen. David Petraeus, who heads the US Army's Central Command and is widely credited with lead authorship of the "people first" counterinsurgency doctrine implemented in Iraq and Afghanistan, is toying with the idea of a run for the White House.

General Petraeus did little to squelch that speculation last week when he spoke at the annual dinner of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), one of Washington's premier conservative think tanks.

With former Vice President Dick Cheney and members of the Bush-era glitterati known as the neo-cons looking on, Petraeus accepted AEI's annual Irving Kristol Award, named after the giant of neo-conservatism -- a conservative ideology with roots in American liberal thinking that eschews realist foreign policy in favor of an activist and interventionist approach to the world. The highest goal of neo-conservatism is the spread of "American values" including freedom and democracy.

The late Mr. Kristol's son, Bill Kristol, noted in a tribute to the award's three decades of honorees that none has ever gone on to become president. He then added to applause and laughter, "Perhaps this curious and glaring omission will be rectified."

COMMENT:  Well, I don't know.  I'm a skeptic.  Petraeus has regularly said that he isn't interested, the standard line, and we have no way of knowing whether he's being honest or traditional. 

But the transition from general to presidential candidate is not an easy one.  Petraeus is not Eisenhower.  Eisenhower organized victory in Europe during World War II, a vastly larger and more critical conflict than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Eisenhower wore five stars, a rare honor.  And Eisenhower emerged as a presidential candidate at a time when Americans were much closer to their military than they are today.  We had a true citizens' army. 

Also, other candidates are not going to lay down and play dead if Petraeus goes political.  Petraeus, after all, is untested in the political arena.  He's not the most inspiring speaker, as I found out when I heard him in a small room recently in New York.  He's also gaffe-prone, as we saw when he declared the Times Square bomber a lone wolf, a statement that will come back to haunt him. 

Very few generals have made it to the presidency.  The last was Eisenhower, and the last before him was Grant.  Both led gigantic struggles.  In the media age, a general must sound like a president, and military men often have a way of speaking that doesn't quite match the political markets. 

On the other hand, Dave Petraeus is a terrific guy, with a quick, innovative mind, who is intensely competitive.  The stories of his personal gutsiness are legend:  He was once shot through the chest in a training accident, and bounced back immediately, proving by doing pushups that he should be released from an Army hospital early. 

So, we'll see.  I think it's a long shot, but so was Reagan at one time. 

May 16, 2010