If Petraeus is as capable as he's been made out to be, I find it shameful that he is being displaced because he had an extramarital affair. Now, if he partook in some wrongdoing beyond that, be it sharing classified documents or blackmailing someone it is a different story. But as far as I'm concerned his affair is between himself, his mistress and his wife, I could care less.
As I mentioned, unless he partook in some wrongdoing. Everyone has their demons and if we start terminating those that have access to classified information based on whether or not they can be "shamed" and hence manipulated based on a transgression, my guess is our talent pool will shrink pretty quickly.
Here's my take on it -- everyone could use an appreciative biographer (preferably while they are still alive). Many people would love to be known, understood, and appreciated. How wonderful to be interviewed by someone who is really listening, really trying to get what makes you tick, what you are -- at the same time respecting that mystery that we all can be to one another. A biographer gets to know you and understand you. Many biographers are motivated by their admiration for their subject. You feel most authentically yourself when your identity is accurately reflected back to you by another person.
The article said, "A spouse is unlikely to provide it. A spouse knows you too well for that, and gives you something deeper, truer and so much less electric." Your spouse knows and understands and appreciates you in different ways. Your spouse already did an in-depth interview, and has moved on now to other ways of being with you. How would it be if spouses begin writing their partner's biography and continue to write it throughout their life together? They could take turns. Little bite-size pieces of biography every day. There are enough questions to make that possible. That would be cool.
b_b is right of course.
Yeah, this type of coverage is laughable, but is it surprising? No. Go to the grocery store, and check out the magazine selection in the check out lanes. We have an important policy debate right now about taxes ans spending, and yet we're forced to learn about who sent pictures of which unclothed body prat to whom, essentially turning the news into the real housewives of Langley. Shameful. No man who bangs a hot woman (or an ugly one for that matter), extra-maritally or not, is a victim. And few women are victims, either. Adults make adult choices. If the FBI needed to get involved, they should have investigated whether there was a security breach. If so, file charges; if not, leave everyone alone. Men are all pigs on the inside, but some of us can control it.
Maybe less grievous, but doesn't Bruni just make the same mistake here?These mighty men didn’t just choose mistresses, by all appearances. They chose fonts of gushing reverence. That’s at least as deliberate and damnable as any signals the alleged temptresses put out.