The Hill News

In my last blog, I predicted that President Obama would handily beat the Seven Dwarfs who are now the announced candidates for the Republican nomination. If the Republicans are smart â€" there is little indication lately that they are â€" the establishment of old-line Republicans and influential-istas will soon conclude that they need to recruit a potential winner. This is how that scenario could play out.

About a year ago (8/14/2010) I predicted in a USA Today op-ed that by escalating our involvement in Afghanistan and putting him in charge, President Obama created in then-Gen. David Petraeus a future political opponent who could beat him. Hoping that he would de-escalate our foreign military misadventures, I predicted then that “if the president does the politically difficult, right thing, regardless of whether it seems to hurt his reelection chances, he might have a better chance to be reelected … Ironically, in turning over the war in Afghanista! n to Gen. David Petraeus, President Obama may have anointed the one man who could beat him in the 2012 election.”

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