{"id":9844,"date":"2010-04-05T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T17:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=9844"},"modified":"2010-07-07T20:15:58","modified_gmt":"2010-07-08T01:15:58","slug":"like-ike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=9844","title":{"rendered":"Like Ike"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was 1952.\u00a0 In the lifetimes of the Americans who were of prime voting, earning and thinking ages, the 25-50 year olds who make up the Great American Middle, there’d been a great Depression, one (or for the older ones, two ) world wars plus a nasty “police action” in Korea, and more turmoil in general than people today can comrehend.<\/p>\n

And as popular as Franklin D. Roosevelt had been, and as tightly as his administration’s policies had wound themselves into the lives of everyday Americans, the thought of extending his legacy to six terms was too much for many Americans.<\/p>\n

And so when the Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson, the GOP responded with Dwight Eisenhower – war hero and, by today’s standards, a moderate.\u00a0 And whatever you can say about the next eight years (baby boomers made a great show of rebelling against the era’s staid placidity; their parents, who’d come home from World War II having had a lifetime’s worth of excitement by age 25, didn’t have a problem with placid), it was a great time for America.<\/p>\n

So could the GOP\u00a0do it again with General Petraeus<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Americans have never been so disgusted with their politicians. More than three-quarters of Americans disapprove of Congress. President Barack Obama’s favourability ratings have slumped to below 50 per cent and he is no longer trusted or believed by many who voted for him…Many voters yearn for an outsider, someone with authenticity, integrity and proven accomplishment. Someone who has not spent their life plotting how to ascend the greasy pole, adjusting every utterance for maximum political advantage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Say what you will about Barack Obama, but he, like Bill and Hillary Clinton, is the consummate professional politician; it’s hard to see what he’s done in his entire life that hasn’t played into preparing for\u00a0a career in politics.<\/p>\n

In this toxic climate, perhaps the only public institution that has increased in prestige in recent years is the American military. Its officers are looked upon, as General George Patton once noted, as “the modern representatives of the demi-gods and heroes of antiquity”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or at least people of integrity who’ve had to prove their worth with more than just school rankings and voting records.<\/p>\n

Where better to look for Obama’s successor, therefore, than in the uniformed ranks? Not since 1952, when a certain Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War, was elected President, have the chances of a military man winning the White House been more propitious.<\/p>\n

Within those ranks, no one stands out like General David Petraeus, head of United States Central Command, leader of 230,000 troops and commander of United States forces in two wars. Having masterminded the Iraq surge, the stunning military gambit that seized victory from the jaws of defeat, he is now directing an equally daunting undertaking in Afghanistan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story doesn’t end there, of course – it barely begins there.\u00a0 Nobody knows if Petraeus is interested in running, or much of what he’d stand for, policy-wise.\u00a0 Which was, of course, Ike’s story as well.<\/p>\n

Still, the possibilities are intrigueing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was 1952.\u00a0 In the lifetimes of the Americans who were of prime voting, earning and thinking ages, the 25-50 year olds who make up the Great American Middle, there’d been a great Depression, one (or for the older ones, two ) world wars plus a nasty “police action” in Korea, and more turmoil in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-president-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9844"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9857,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9844\/revisions\/9857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}