Petraeus 2012 Watch

Friday, 20th November 2009

Previously, I've argued that even if General David Petraeus does have political ambitions there are any number of obstacles that might make it difficult for him to make a successful bid for the Presidency. All those points still stand. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that the CENTCOM commander is this year's recipient of the American Enterprise Institute's annual Irving Kristol Award and that he'll be AEI's guest of honour at its annual dinner next year.

As I say, a 2012 run seems most improbable (at the moment!) but 2016? Well, that could, conceivably, be a different story. Consider this award a data point, however.

The flip-side to the award, mind you, is that, notwithstanding Petraeus's merit and achievements there may not have been a deep field of potential honorees this year.

Filed under: 2012 (150 more articles) , Neo-conservatism (14 more articles) , Petraeus (9 more articles)

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Occasional Ostrich

November 20th, 2009 8:39pm Report this comment

Alex, I hope he is careful in his choice of which party to stand for.

two moon

November 21st, 2009 6:33pm Report this comment

If he's going to do it then I think that he has to go in 2012. If he waits until 2016 he will have been forgotten by too many people. For all his achievements (and they are many) he's not Eisenhower.

Simon

November 22nd, 2009 4:53pm Report this comment

He used standard counter-insurgency tactics and bribed the western Sunnis to reject Al Qaeda (which they had already started to do). He did a good job, no doubt, by comparison with the fools who preceded him, but not really a huge deal. Iraq is still a disaster.

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