By James M. Perry

Roger Ailes, the combative boss of Fox News, had a brilliant idea in the spring of 2011, according to the Washington Post's Bob Woodward -- urge General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, to give some serious thought to running for President of the United States.

Nothing came of it, of course, and the general's reputation was shattered with the revelation that he had had an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

But it wasn't such a bad idea -- Petraeus might have been the army's smartest, most successful general since Matthew Ridgway way back in the Korean War. Ridgway was a truly great general, turning a defeated army around and making them soldiers again. Fighting with him was the Marine general, O.P. Smith, who led the First Marine Division to safety, though surrounded by swarms of Chinese. They emerged from their ordeal with all their dead and wounded and singing the Marine hymn.

Americans have always had a weakness for electing generals, starting with George Washington himself. There have been 12 of them all together -- Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, and Dwight Eisenhower.

Other generals have tried. General Alexander Haig had been in charge of updating Douglas MacArthur's war maps during the Second World War. He was secretary of state when he famously proclaimed, "I'm in control here," after President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr.in March of 1981 (at right, with national security advisor Richard Allen). Haig had seen hard fighting in Korea and Vietnam and had served for five years as NATO's supreme commander. He withdrew from the race in 1988 four days before the New Hampshire primary.

General Wesley Clark, valedictorian of his West Point class and a Rhodes scholar, sought the Democratic Party's nomination in 2004. Clark was shot four times by a Viet Cong soldier in Vietnam, pulled himself together and led a counter-attack that routed the enemy. He commanded allied forces in Kosovo from 1997 to 2000. He withdrew from the race in February and threw his support to John Kerry.

One of the reasons why we haven't elected a general since Dwight Eisenhower may be because we haven't had many successful generals like Ridgway and O.P. Smith. Thomas E. Ricks, in his book, The Generals, takes a somewhat dyspeptic view of the modern-day general, arguing that one of the problems is that they don't understand guerrilla warfare and that nobody ever fires the incompetents. Ricks's hero is General George C. Marshall, the top American general in World War 2. Marshall had no hesitation in firing a whole string of generals who were too old and too ignorant to lead troops in the biggest war the U.S. had ever fought. It was Marshall who jumped Eisenhower over scores of higher ranking officers to lead the allied invasion of Europe.

Ricks doesn't exactly say so but he obviously believes some of the army's modern-day generals should have been fired. He singles out two of them for special condemnation -- Tommy Franks and Ricardo Sanchez, both of whom served in Iraq. Franks was a fool, Ricks says, and Sanchez was in way over his head.

The lone exception was Petraeus. Dexter Filkins, a brilliant war correspondent who writes now for the New Yorker, says that by almost every measure "the American soldiers and marines who went into Iraq and Afghanistan, were grossly unprepared for their mission, and the officers who led them were often negligent." Somebody should have been fired; no one was. Petraeus was the only general who seemed to know how to deal with Iraq. He and the 101st Airborne Division took up positions in and around the northern city of Mosul, so far from the heart of Iraq nobody paid much attention to him. It was there he began to develop his counter-insurgecy strategy. Basically, Filkins says, instead of concentrating on the enemy you want to kill, his troops concentrated on the civilians you want to protect. It worked. Throughout much of 2003, while Iraq imploded, Mosul stayed relatively calm.

"The truth is," Filkins says, "Petraeus really was exceptional."

Generals often develop inflated egos. MacArthur's ego was legendary. Petraeus may have fallen into the same trap. He once arrived at a party preceded by 28 motorcycles. And, surely, being involved in an affair with his biographer, showed a lamentable lack of good sense. And, yet, he is the best we have. It's time to forgive him and put him back to work. The army needs him.

James M. Perry, a prominent veteran political reporter, is contributing regular observations for post-gazette.com. Mr. Perry was the chief political correspondent of The Wall Street Journal until his retirement. Prior to that, he covered national politics for the Dow Jones weekly, The National Observer.

National Republican leaders are pushing blue states with GOP state governments like Pa, Michigan and Wisconsin to change their electoral vote allocation by congressional district rather than popular vote, the National Journal reports today.

Pa legislators flirted with the idea last year before letting the idea slide, but Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi has already said he'll reintroduce a proposal next year.

From NJ's Reid Wilson:

Obama won all three states in 2008, handing him 46 electoral votes because of the winner-take-all system. Had electoral votes been awarded by district, Republican nominee Mitt Romney would have cut into that lead. Final election results show that Romney won nine of Michigan's 14 districts, five of eight in Wisconsin, and at least 12 of 18 in Pennsylvania. Allocate the two statewide votes in each state to Obama and that means Romney would have emerged from those three Democratic states with 26 electoral votes, compared with just 19 for Obama (and one district where votes are still being counted).

Republicans are able to contemplate such a bold plan because of their electoral success in 2010, when the party won control of state legislative chambers and the governorships in all three states, giving them total control over the levers of state government.

"If you did the calculation, you'd see a massive shift of electoral votes in states that are blue and fully [in] red control," said one senior Republican taking an active role in pushing the proposal. "There's no kind of autopsy and outreach that can grab us those electoral votes that quickly."

The proposals, the senior GOP official said, are likely to come up in each state's legislative session in 2013. Bills have been drafted, and legislators are talking to party bosses to craft strategy. Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, has briefed Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Chief of Staff Jeff Larson on his state's proposal. The proposal "is not being met with the 'We can't do that' answer. It's being met with 'I've already got a bill started,' " the official said.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin -- he of the notorious ad where he shot a cap-and-trade bill with a rifle, who addressed the NRA convention here in Pittsburgh in 2011 -- is among those saying changes need to be made to gun laws after Friday's school massacre in Connecticut.

From Politico:

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin — who has an "A" rating from the NRA and is a lifetime member of the pro-gun rights group — said Monday that it was time to "move beyond rhetoric" on gun control.

"I just came with my family from deer hunting," Manchin said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I've never had more than three shells in a clip. Sometimes you don't get more than one shot anyway at a deer. It's common sense. It's time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common-sense discussion and move in a reasonable way."

Manchin, who declined to say what specific restrictions he would support, said the NRA should have a role in the debate over legislative changes to gun law.

“I want to call all our friends in the NRA, sit down and have this discussion,” he said. “Bring them into it. They have to be at the table. We all have to.”

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter -- president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors -- released the following statement on the fatal elementary school shootings in Connecticut today:

"Again and again and again, Americans are stunned by senseless acts of violence involving guns. Today's tragedy targeting young children in Newtown is incomprehensible.

"On behalf of The U.S. Conference of Mayors, I send our condolences to the victims, their families, and their community. We know that Newtown First Selectman Patricia Llodra and Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy are doing everything possible today to help the community cope with so much loss and pain.

"Too many times this year, mayors have expressed shock at a mass shooting. The Conference has been calling for sensible gun laws to protect the public for more than 40 years. We hope that today's monstrous act of gun violence finally forces this nation's leaders to make reasonable changes in our gun laws and regulations – changes that will help prevent senseless tragedies such as the one that has rocked Newtown and the nation.

"As a country, we don't need more debate, no more excuses. The time for action is now."

Gov. Tom Corbett ordered all Pennsylvania flags statewide be lowered to half-staff immediately through sundown Dec. 18. His statement:

"My wife, Susan, and I want to offer our condolences to the families and friends of the victims of today's tragic shooting in Connecticut. As parents, we can imagine nothing more horrific than such a violent, senseless act committed against innocent children.

"On behalf of all Pennsylvanians, we want the families of all these victims to know they are in our thoughts and prayers and we share in their grief.''