The Petraeus Rumor

Washington Whispers suggest that Romney has sent people to find out whether General Petraeus is willing to run as Vice President. 


On the face of it, General Petraeus would provide the GOP with some difficulty since he is a self-proclaimed Rockefeller Republican. But clearly the party has swallowed a lot with Mitt Romney and the conservatives would forgive him his ideological foibles.


Why I think there is truth to this is that Romney is surrounded by the Kagans who are big fans of General Petraeus and in fact got him to be the general in charge of the surge. And Romney is pulling nearly 20 points behind Obama on foreign affairs. Unlike almost every pundit in town, I believe by the summer foreign affairs will rear its ugly head and become a central concern for the campaign.


The fact of the matter is that Romney was wounded by President Obama's ad on bin Laden and he is a person who bears a grudge. By selecting Petraeus, he in essence will try to claim the lion's share of Obama's foreign policy achievements and sanitize the record of the George W. Bush administration. The selection would satisfy the neo-conservatives who haven't figured out yet how to play again.


On choosing Vice Presidents, we know that all the known personalities have not polled enough to alter the race within their own states. It's clear by his body language Romney has written off the Latino vote and hence Marco Rubio. But none of the others really improve his situation. The only one was Tom Ridge in Pennsylvania and he would give Romney a type of gravitas he still lacks after all these years. The bump in polling there should send a message to the Romney camp.


When Romney visited Dick Cheney, he said the former vice president was his ideal vice president. While everyone gasped about this because of Cheney's support of torture and the invasion of Iraq, this makes sense politically when you remember that Dick Cheney's selection was greeted with relief and welcomed by the Washington Post. His self-selection we should say lent George W. a certain "gravitas". Petraeus would do that for Romney and put an articulate younger men at number two.


Romney wants to focus on re-organizing government. He knows that the economy will bustle in 2014 and he wants to get credit for that. He also has said he would defer to the generals on all matters of military affairs and would do whatever Bibi Netanyahu wants done in the Middle East. In short, he doesn't want to have anything to do with foreign policy. And we have seen how he has been criticized by General Colin Powell for his goofy statements. 


By choosing Petraeus he would upset the notion he doesn't take any risks and was simply going to take the safe choice--Senator Portman. He would then get a second, serious look and would win over certain of the prestige press. After all Petraeus has been selected as one of the most influential people in the world by Time and others for years and is seen as a soldier-intellectual. The choice would pacify the military-intelligence-terrorist complex who would have their guy within the White House, usually a requirement for Republican Administrations.


Remember Republicans bank on having the edge on two issues--taxes and foreign affairs. Being down on foreign affairs to President Obama hurts them. Petraeus would be their answer.