General David Petraeus braves a work out on Venice Beach
Just six months after resigning as director of the CIA, David Petraeus is returning to the public eye.
Once a national hero for saving the United States from humiliation during his 2007-2008 stint as the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, Petraeus resigned as CIA director in disgrace in November after revealing an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.
The affair that doomed his career in government began when Broadwell was researching and writing a book titled 'All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,' which Rolling Stone referred to as 'slobberific' and 'so one-sided that it is almost supernaturally dull.'
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Out in public: Petraeus worked out on Venice Beach with veterans last month
Laying low: David Petraeus resigned from the Central Intelligence Agency in November
Petraeus resigned as CIA director after the FBI learned of his affair with Broadwell.
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In what is being seen as a return to public life, Petraeus will serve as a visiting professor of public policy at CUNY's Macaulay Honors College. His employment begins on the 1st August.
Mr. Petraeus, a highly decorated four-star general who commanded the coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, is far better known for his accomplishments on foreign battlefields than for his time in classrooms, but he graduated in the top 5 percent of his class at the United States Military Academy.
There is a long, bipartisan tradition in American politics of sexual indiscretion followed by redemption.
Recently a number of former high-profile individuals have been attempting to make a comeback.
There’s Mark Sanford, running for Congress in South Carolina after an affair during his term as governor.
There’s also former N.Y. congressman Anthony Weiner, best known for the lewd tweets he sent, who has been testing the waters recently as a candidate for mayor of New York. He is even back on Twitter.
Petraeus will likely have the easiest time of the three. He was a widely respected general whose affair may have hurt his family and his career, but he did not lie about it and resigned immediately when it came to light.
According to Buzzfeed people around Petraeus say he's been thinking hard about how to manage his comeback, his image, and his new role outside national security.
Petraeus has always been famous both for his intelligence and for his ability to manage the press, and he has signaled that he has thought hard about his predicament.
Affair: Jill Kelley's tip to the FBI exposed his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell (pictured), and led to his resignation
Still together: David Petraeus stands alongside his wife Holly during his swearing in ceremony as the new CIA Director in September 2011. The couple are still married
Surviving scandal? U.S. Gen. David Petraeus is the latest in the list of high-profile public figures who appear interested in making a comeback following scandal
Last month he made a speech at the University of Southern California where he apologized to those he'd hurt with his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
'I join you keenly aware that I am regarded in a different light now than I was a year ago,' he said.
'I know that I can never fully assuage the pain that I inflicted on those closest to me and on a number of others,' Petraeus said, according to news reports.
'I can, however, try to move forward in a manner that is consistent with the values to which I subscribed before slipping my moorings and, as best as possible, to make amends to those I have hurt and let down'
He has signaled he’s ready to move on: 'One learns after all that life doesn't stop with such a mistake. It can and must go on.'
He is also dealing with a lingering investigation as to whether he inappropriately shared secret documents with Broadwell.
FBI agents reportedly visited his home earlier this month.
