Time for a proven hero

Here’s a scenario that could shake up presidential politics | Joel Belz

Gen. David Petraeus

Twice in the last six months, I've used this space to stress how much of a psychological downer the current presidential campaign has become because of the high negatives of so many of the candidates.

Not in my lifetime do I remember hearing so often, and in so many venues, the stubborn refrain: "I think I could vote for just about anybody but . . ." And then, oddly, you might well fill in the name of just about any of the 15-20 folks aspiring to the nation's highest office.

This is a nonpartisan pattern. It's true that in my circles I hear it most often about Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards—and while I think it's fairly easy to come up with a legitimate reason for never, ever voting for any one of those three, I'm sometimes also embarrassed at the reasons I hear. But in the present cycle, I hear it just about as often with reference to Republican would-be's like Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, or even Ron Paul.