David Petraeus Rehire: President Obama Should Give Former CIA Director a Second Chance, Some Say - Affair Scandal 'Ludicrously Overblown'

While former CIA Director David Petraeus' extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell erupted as a highly-controversial sex scandal that has dominated news headlines since the General's shocking resignation earlier this month, many political pundits believe that President Obama should seriously consider rehiring the retired American military officer. According to some, Petraeus' highly-publicized affair scandal was "ludicrously blown" out of proportion, and that the popular (former) public official should perhaps be given a second chance.

According to political strategist Richard Hart Sinnreich who writes for the Lawton Constitution -  

"...The Petraeus Affair has dominated the media virtually without surcease since two days after the election, displacing everything from the imminent threat of a fiscal catastrophe and a renewed Israeli-Palestinian clash to the war still underway in Aghanistan... Doubtless David Petraeus should be ashamed of himself, although he's scarcely the first - and certainly won't be the last - senior military or political official to allow his male hormones to overrule his judgment... Compared with some of those affairs, Petraeus's brief dalliance with writer and fellow West Pointer Paula Broadwell scarcely deserves more than an inside paragraph in the National Enquirer... His embarrassment is nothing to the shame that we citizens should feel as the unembarrassed consumers of so-called news peddled by media with no apparent standards of importance, never mind taste, and as the electors of legislators with even fewer...

I hold no special brief for Gen. Petraeus. We've met only once and disagreed on that occasion... But I also believe him to be a remarkably bright and capable leader and conscientious public servant, and see no reason whatever to forfeit those talents just because he allowed himself briefly to become entangled with an attractive - and, on the evidence, not entirely rational - female admirer... Were I President Barack Obama, having satisfied the obligatory political requirement to exhibit public disapproval of Petraeus's marital infidelity, I would promptly rehire him and tell him to go back to work and sin no more. One thing is for sure: no replacement as CIA director could possibly be less vulnerable henceforth to blackmail.... But, some sententious readers surely will insist, what a terrible model for our children! How can we restore Petraeus to a position of trust and confidence without sending our young people a message that such unseemly behavior is forgivable? To which the answer is, that if any of today's youth raised on "Sex and the City" and "90210" - never mind You-Tube and Facebook - still have any serious illusions in that regard, they're either TV and Internet-deprived or developmentally disabled."

For the full Sinnreich column entitled "Petraeus-Broadwell Brouhaha Ludicrously Overblown," go here.

Slate's Emily Yoffe apparently agrees, writing:

"I have a great idea whom Barack Obama should nominate as his next CIA director: Gen. David Petraeus. With that simple announcement, Obama could strike a blow for civil liberties and against the silly and destructive sexual Puritanism that has taken down so many public figures. Since Petraeus' departure both Democrats and Republicans have been mourning the loss of a public servant of extraordinary ability....

Because Obama is a man with such a blemish-free private life, this could be a "Nixon in China" moment. It would be impossible for a Bill Clinton, say, to strike such a blow for sexual sanity. But given that even that insatiable sex fiend is back in the arena and much revered (by some), surely that means we have grown up enough to realize that just because you're in public life doesn't mean every aspect of your marriage is fair game. Yes, it's been titillating to read the farcical details of Petraeus' fling, and no one got more vicarious pleasure than I. But in the end the Petraeus so-called scandal is just the old story of a long-married man who strayed with a younger woman, a woman who unfortunately for all went a little nuts. I hope that for none of the participants it's a marriage ender, but it certainly should not have been a career ender.

...Thanks to our ever-faster cycle of humiliation and rehabilitation, he has already been punished and paroled. It's time to let Petraeus get back to work. It would probably even please Mrs. Petraeus to see less of him around the house right now. Petraeus has already engaged the services of Robert Barnett, the Washington lawyer who gets former government officials seven-figure book deals. The word is that no book is planned, but surely Petraeus must want to tell his own version of his life. Let's hope that Obama keeps Petraeus from embarking on this next chapter by asking him to return and finish the job he started."

It looks like many others actually agree - a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 45 percent of the public still view Petraeus in a positive light - only a 10 point-drop from March 2011 (and only a 16-point drop from his popularity peak back in September 2007). It looks like Petraeus still remains a popular public figure even after his scandalous extramarital affair.

Do Mstarz readers agree - should Obama rehire Petraeus? Exercise your First Amendment rights in the comments below!