Tom Friedman and David Patraeus

Sandy Levinson

Tom Friedman calls for a revolt by the "radical center," which takes the form of a thid party to be nominated by the equivalent of a multi-month "internet convention" that will winnow down candidates and then choose two, but not from the same political party, to run as candidates for the presidency and vice presidency in 2012. Apparently, this is well-funded, and steps are already on the way to get the candidates of Americans Elect on the ballots in all fifty states. There's much that could be said about this in terms of my repeated criticisms of Friedman for a basic unwillingness to connect the dots. (He does not, for example, seem to recognize that legislation emanates from the Congress, and his breathless endorsement of Americans Elect doesn't speak to this reality, nor to the the even more stunning reality that the most likely consequence of "success" is to throw the election into the House of Representatives, which votes, recall, on a lunatic one-state/one-vote basis (though, politically, I'm delighted that Vermont will balance out Texas, though less charmed that Allaska or Wyoming together will outweight California, but, hey, that's just our dysfunctional Constitution).

Rather, let me suggest that Friedman, consciously or not--I suspect the latter--is setting the stage for "we the people" to draft David Petraeus as the alternative to the leadership of Obama and John Boehner alike, which Friedman seems more than happy to trash (though he helpfully suggests that Obama should leave the Democratic Party and run instead as the Americans Elect candidate as the mugwump that he really is). Petraeus, of course, will not announce any such candidacy and will make suitable noises about discouraging it. But will he issue a Sherman statement. The awful truth is that there are not "reasonable candidates" waiting in the wings (or, at least, Friedman doesn't name a single one. He writes like a six-year-old who's been given a brand-new toy, and he's so excited he almost literally doesn't stop to think. But let me suggest that Michael Bloomberg is not going to emerge as "the people's choice," nor will anyone else who now holds elected political office jump to seize this opportunity (not least because it would mean the end of their political careers unless, of course, they happened to win). There's only David Petraeus, the most favorably-publicized (now) ex-general from the most trusted institution in America, the military. So who gets tapped to be his VP? Colin Powell? (Though he's now probably too old.)
Posted 2:37 PM by Sandy Levinson [link]