Petraeus to New Hampshire

News that Gen. David Petraeus is venturing out of his Centcom comfort zone late this month to the state of New Hampshire is catnip for a certain chunk of obsessives who believe that Petraeus wants to run for president (and be nominated as vice president) in 2012. Petraeus has said he's not interested, in public. So do most would-be candidates at this stage. So ignore that for now. Here's what I can add:

First, as James Pindell notes, Petraeus lives in New Hampshire. He's registered to vote there as a Republican.

Petraeus attends a lot of fancy private dinner gatherings in Washington. I have never been to one of these gatherings, but I've spoken with several folks who've attended several of them, and they all seem to come away with the impression that Petraeus is far more interested in exploring his political options than he says publicly.

He's speaking at St. Anselm's College, the site of many historic political moments -- Ronald Reagan paid for his microphone there. No one runs for president without speaking at St. A's New Hampshire Institute of Politics.