Jon Stewart: Interview with Paula Broadwell

Jon Stewart had some uncanny ability to predict the future.  The video is from January 2012.

Not to pile on Petraeus but he committed the first sin of fooling around. Never fool around with someone who has less to lose than you do. Secondly, he let his ego get in the way of his goals. Thirdly, there is absolutely nothing worse than a jealous women or a jealous dog. Both protect their own self-interests with equal fervour.

According to the Washington Post:

For Broadwell, who is also married, the startling turn of events has reportedly been painful as well. After writing a best-selling and highly laudatory book about Petraeus, she appears to have initiated the series of events that led to his public humiliation. Investigators say threatening e-mails from Broadwell to another woman led to the discovery of the affair between the biographer and her subject. It is an outcome made more poignant because she has been — and remains — zealous in her devotion to the general, friends and colleagues say.

“She was relentlessly pro-Petraeus,” said a longtime Afghan policy expert who met Broadwell in Kabul. “There was no room for a conversation of shortcomings of the Petraeus theology. She wasn’t a reporter. She struck me as an acolyte.”

Those who worked for Petraeus  continued to express discomfort with Broadwell’s level of access and how she flaunted it in their faces.

Her trips were not without controversy. Aides were stunned by the close access that Broadwell was granted — and that she occasionally flaunted. At the same time, some were unimpressed by her reporting style and thin journalistic résumé.

“Her credentials didn’t add up,” said a former Petraeus staff member who was interviewed a number of times by Broadwell. “I was underwhelmed. It was surprising to me that she was his official biographer.”

Peter Mansoor, a former executive officer on Petraeus’s staff, said he thought the general’s uncharacteristic confidence in an untested writer was “strange.”

Former aides also expressed displeasure with her attire.  Broadwell was insensitive to local tradition and ignored customs of modesty.  They reported that she often wore tight, form-fitting clothing while in Afghanistan.  Additionally she posted frivolous comments on her FaceBook that other officers thought could possibly compromise the mission.

Broadwell herself had a security clearance and many felt she should have known better than to post indiscreet Facebook comments.  Despite casualness and informality, as well as easy access, most who knew them could not imagine sexual impropriety or an affair because of Petraeus’s personality:

…Petraeus came across as the consummate gentleman and family man.

“I spent a lot of time with him, and I never heard him say, ‘Wow, she was hot,’ ” one former aide said. “I never recalled hearing him say anything crass or even mentioning the good looks of a person.”

Regardless of how much one attempts to make Broadwell look like the enticing sexual predator, the buck stops with Petraeus.  Regardless of  Goodwell’s alluring antics, it is ultimately Petraeus who holds the responsibility for his own behavior.  Having said all that, I am not sure why he resigned from the CIA.  I don’t think they have the same rules as the military.

Petraeus wasn’t the first nor will he be the last.  Powerful men often think they are special and won’t get caught.  We don’t need to name names but Ike seems to roll off our tongues.  Did people close to him know of the Eisenhower –Summersby relationship?  Of course.  However, the American people didn’t until long after the dust was settled and the American presidency served.  America was a kinder, gentler nation then about personal indiscretion.  Who knew about FDR, Lucy Mercer, and the tragedy of Eleanor Roosevelt?  Darn few.  The Kennedy indiscretions were never in print until after his death.  Perhaps the press protected out heroes’ images and kept their families from heartbreak and shame.  There is no such inclination nowadays.

I suppose the remaining question is, should Petraeus have resigned?  Should the President have accepted his resignation and in the long run, does it matter?