PETRAEUS INTRIGUE – AT 7:16 P.M. ET:  We report periodically on the speculation that General David Petraeus will run for president in 2012.  He has hotly denied it.  But they always hotly deny it.  In the absence of the Sherman Oath, enforced by a .45 pointed at his head, with his own finger on the trigger, one is permitted to wonder.

We wonder anew.  Recently, in testimony before a congressional committee, Petraeus seemed to endorse the new administration line that conflicts in the Middle East, like the Palestine-Israel nastiness, are a national-security threat to the United States, and may even cost American lives.  This did not go down well with many conservatives and supporters of Israel, who pointed out that Americans are being killed by Islamists, and that Israel has never asked for a single American combat soldier.

In the weeks since his statement, Petraeus has been a very busy man, going out of his way to make one entirely voluntary statement after another modifying his original comment.  The latest was today, when he spoke in the Capitol rotunda to a group of veterans who helped liberate the concentration camps at the end of World War II.  Another pro-Israel statement came last week in Washington.

This sounds like a man who is politically sensitive, and who has his ear to political voices other than those coming from the White House.  These statements did not have to be made.  Petraeus is secure in his position, with an outstanding record.

I heard General Petraeus speak recently in New York.  Once again he denied presidential ambitions.  But when you watch him maneuver politically, you watch a politically astute man at work. 

We're wondering again.

April 15