1. ABC’s Carol Simpson tweeted: “Gen. Petraeus? Shocked by the military hero’s admitted moral lapse. But why? He’s a man.”
Could read: “Gen. Petraeus? Amazed by the military hero’s military heroism. But why? He’s a man.”
Or: “Paula Broadwell? Shocked by the status seeking woman’s apparent moral lapse. But why? She’s a woman.”
2. Just about every commentator and journalist believes that Paula Broadwell’s husband, Scott Broadwell, wrote a letter to Chuck Klosterman at The Ethicist in the New York Times seeking advice on his wife’s ongoing affair. But the letter just doesn’t jibe:
My wife is having an affair with a government executive. His role is to manage a project whose progress is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership. (This might seem hyperbolic, but it is not an exaggeration.) I have met with him on several occasions, and he has been gracious. (I doubt if he is aware of my knowledge.) I have watched the affair intensify over the last year, and I have also benefited from his generosity. He is engaged in work that I am passionate about and is absolutely the right person for the job. I strongly feel that exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort. My issue: Should I acknowledge this affair and finally force closure? Should I suffer in silence for the next year or two for a project I feel must succeed? Should I be “true to my heart” and walk away from the entire miserable situation and put the episode behind me? NAME WITHHELD
It seems strange to talk about the CIA as a “project”. Count me among the skeptical on this and everything else surrounding the timing of the scandal.
3. Ross Douthat tweeted a link to a post of his from the summer about Obama’s strategy of nullifying Mitt Romney’s support among the white working class (rather than trying to win their vote outright):
Viewed from a certain angle, these two approaches would seem to be at cross-purposes. (Why pander to blue-collar whites in your ad buys if you’re just going to alienate them on immigration policy or welfare?) But if the goal isn’t to win disaffected working class whites so much as to render Romney sufficiently radioactive that they mostly just sit things out in disgust, then the two-track approach makes considerably more sense. In that scenario, Obama doesn’t need these voters to like him, so he can afford to direct his policy pandering elsewhere; he just needs them to dislike his opponent enough to declare a plague on both houses and stay home.
As Douthat points out, this seems prescient given Sean Trende’s piece on the disappearing white voter.
4. I’ll throw Jezzie a bone here. A writer in their stable at least entertains the nature v. nurture debate after research showing that boys with exposure to high levels of testosterone in the womb is associated with greater impulsivity for the 8 – 11 year-old boys in the study.
5. Noah Millman offers his intuitions on demographics, the election, and the Sailer strategy.
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Simpson’s followup tweet is even better, “Not saying all men are promiscuous. It’s just sickening that men of high stature so often fall prey to unsavory appetites.”
Sickening and unsavory, for the males, to engage in these appetites. Just sickening.
“Not saying all men are promiscuous. It’s just sickening that men of high stature so often fall prey to unsavory appetites.”
And yet that is EXACTLY what she said.
David Petraeus’s kids are adults, Paula Broadwell’s kids are barely out of diapers. For this reason, I think her behavior was worse than his.
The “project” dear to the anonymous writer’s heart was probably something to help out poor, disprivileged, unesteemed blacks. At Whitey’s expense. He is some kind of cuckold, idly watching (if not masturbating to) his wife’s escalating affair with some schmuck bureaucrat.
The Noah Millman piece was one big bland establishment GOP talking point.
PA, there isn’t one “big establishment GOP talking point.” all corners of the establishment have their own pet talking point. Millman advocates a departure from focusing on immigration issues or group identity issues and focusing on economic populism.
Cannot get at all excited about the eleven thousandth minor sex scandal involving a government offical. At least this one wasn’t paying for it, wasn’t that what the last head of the CIA to get in a sex scandal was doing?
By far the most intriguing part of this sex scandal isn’t even the sex. It’s that the guy at the center of it resigned even before the scandal broke. That doesn’t fit the typical plot line.
PA, there isn’t one “big establishment GOP talking point.” all corners of the establishment have their own pet talking point. Millman advocates a departure from focusing on immigration issues or group identity issues and focusing on economic populism.
That’s all a question of jiggling votes around. How many votes do you gain vs how many do you lose by taking any one of the peccadillo routes now being offered by various elements within the GOP.
There is a difference between group identity issues and immigration issues.
Nah, the interesting part is how would you handle this if you were in her husband’s shoes. Imagine going to a P.I. and telling him, my wife is fucking the head honcho of the CIA. I want you to try to surreptitiously follow him around, snoop around in his mail and trash, record where he goes, and start taking pictures of him in public places for reasons you’re not at liberty to divulge to anyone who asks. Uh no thanks buddy, you’re on your own. I don’t wanna disappear and never be seen again.
This whole Petraeus thing would be boring if not for the Benghazi hot potato in the administration. If he does testify before Congress with no blackmail available, we could see some fireworks. He’ll be ‘discredited’ due to the affair, which only works if it could possibly damage any of the lefties. Clinton has already refused to testify to Congress, so it would be interesting if Petraeus testifies, and it forces her hand to testify in response. I doubt the zombies would wake up for this, but I love blue on blue firefights.
Heh, now that the DemocRATS have a super majority in CA, we can look forward to an acceleration towards real bankruptcy and turd-world status. Money will be streaming out of the state now followed by the workers who bring in the big money.
If it is her husband’s letter, it reminds of Henry VIII and other kings, whose mistresses’ husbands were gifted with lands and titles for the Kings’ use of their wives’ favors for a time. They often struggled between shame at their cuckholdery and pride that they were married to women who could attract kings. Sometimes the mistresses were married off to a particular fellow who would not make waves.
i liked petraeus better when he was blowing up little muslim kids. cheating on his wife… that’s just wrong…
If a man gets cuckolded by a much higher status man, he looks like a baby if he complains about it. No one cares. Chalk it up to hypergamy, and move on.
I read “he’s a man” as “he’s only human” or some such thing.