2012 Watch: Petraeus to Iowa? Not So Fast . . .

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: The Weekly Standard’s Michael Goldfarb set off a bit of a blog storm over the weekend by reporting Friday that “General [David] Petraeus is planning on delivering the commencement address at the University of Iowa in 2010. Hmmm.” Speeches in Iowa mean presidential aspirations, as any smart analyst knows. The Hill reported that the “high-profile speech in Iowa [would be] about a year and a half before the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.” The move is “sure to set tongues wagging in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012,” the newspaper reported.  “Could be interesting, but it would need to be a lot more than a war candidacy. 2010′s a ways out though, and 2012 is even farther,” Jules Crittenden wrote on his blog, in some very, very early handicapping.  Except . . . there’s this statement, out Sunday from US Central Command: “Contrary to several recent blogs, General David Petraeus, the Commander of the US Central Command, has not been asked to speak at a university commencement in Iowa in 2010 and has no plans to do so. “It us unclear where this rumor started, but it is not accurate. “Furthermore, General Petraeus is not planning to run for President in 2012. He has repeatedly stated that he feels very privileged to have been able to serve our country in uniform and that he would like to continue to do so as long as those above him want him to serve.” “When he retires, he has no intention of seeking political office.” How did the rumor start? With Goldfarb. The University of Iowa tidbit came at the end of a posting about how Petraeus is speaking at Princeton University, where he attended graduate school, in May. (Speeches in New Jersey aren’t as interesting as those in Iowa or New Hampshire, generally speaking.) After the blogosphere lit up with the Iowa mention, Goldfarb — a former aide to the McCain presidential campaign — added an asterisk to his blog posting: “This was meant as joke, though obviously it fell a little flat. Petraeus has no plans to go to Iowa that I’m aware, this year or next. I regret the confusion that has resulted from my clumsy attempt at humor,” Goldfarb wrote.