In beguiling Gen. David Petraeus, biographer Paula Broadwell joins a select group of ambitious female scribes who have run away—literally—with their subjects.

Ms. Broadwell seduced the exercise-mad general in Afghanistan when she proved she could match his six-minute miles. She sealed the deal with a finished piece of hagiography called—no snickering now—All In, which she then went on to flog in evening dresses that revealed biceps to rival Michelle Obama’s.
Ms. Broadwell is in hiding now, but she’s in good company.

Female scribes may be at a disadvantage when it comes to good assignments and pay, but they enjoy certain benefits vis-à-vis male egomaniacs.

Both male and female reporters carry basic tools in their bag of tricks, including the ability to flatter, cajole, wheedle and bully a subject into answering questions.

But the most effective tool of the female journalist is often her ability to disarm. There’s that delicate, shell-like ear, tuned to him alone. Women are used to kvetching about this and that to their girlfriends. But Great Men have no one to confide in besides their spouses, and when a female reporter turns up with a recorder, while he may have the self-control not to reveal company secrets, the novelty of being listened to by a new woman is often an intoxicant.

If power is an aphrodisiac, the power reflected back to the Great Man through the dictation-taking pen of the female journalist is de facto doubly arousing. A wise Lois Lane knows that with certain subjects, the well-turned stiletto can add a frisson that brings forth the most provocative quotes. The same cannot be said for male journalists covering women, because most American women leaders take an oath of asexuality in order to survive.

Most of the time, though, Great Men aren’t all that interested in actually bedding grubby ink-stained wretches. It takes a particularly bold, adventurous and hot Brenda Starr to throw the subject of an interview under the desk for a shag—an act the general alluded to in emails to Broadwell.

Overachieving soldier-scholar Broadwell isn’t even a career journalist. She doesn’t hail from the same mousy and supposedly objective ranks as the rest of us, but that’s only because she could actually do it all. She grew up in North Dakota, was high school valedictorian, student council president, homecoming queen and an all-state basketball player, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with multiple honors, and has held positions in the U.S. intelligence community, U.S. Special Operations Command and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces.

A buxom G.I. Jane, done up for recent television appearances in ruffled and silky sleeveless dresses, Ms. Broadwell apparently went way off the rez with anonymous emails to a third woman, Jill Kelley of Florida, who has insisted she is merely a friend, and not another Petraeus paramour.
The general must have known he was dealing with a loose cannon when Ms. Broadwell posted pictures of him with Angelina Jolie in his office on her Facebook page—before the pictures had been made public, which they might never have been, since Ms. Jolie was clearly in a part of the Langley building off limits to civilians.

Initial reports claimed Ms. Broadwell broke up with Mr. Petraeus when he became CIA director a year ago, but others suggest that the two actually started their affair after he was sworn in. Whatever the details, a woman who could match him in pushups and chin-ups must have seemed like his athletic soulmate, even the love of his life.

Those in-depth interviews conducted on endurance runs in Afghanistan, were “the foundation of our relationship,” Ms. Broadwell told Jon Stewart in a publicity appearance on The Daily Show before the scandal broke. She had taken the lead in promoting the book she co-wrote with Washington Post editor Vernon Loeb (a real ink-stained wretch who has been, so far, conspicuously silent on the activities of his co-author.)

It can’t be easy to be a Great Man confronted with a sexy hagiographer with glowing penmanship and a dab of perfume.

There are many such tales and some of them end well. The happily-ever-after standard was set by Suzy Wetlaufer, who was editor of the Harvard Business Review when she profiled Jack Welch, then CEO of GE, whose business wisdom was doled out in a best-selling book lapped up by middle-manager wannabes in airport bookstores across the land.

At the time, Lisa DePaulo wrote in New York magazine that good things almost instantly came to life when these two overachievers crossed paths. Ms. Wetlaufer was then “a vivacious 42-year-old Harvard M.B.A., Baker Scholar, novelist, mother of four, and Sunday-school teacher—with a penchant for Prada and Chanel and fabulous shoes,” Ms. DePaulo wrote.

Ms. Wetlaufer had interviewed most of the nation’s top CEOs, and getting picked up in a corporate jet was all in a day’s work for her. But the 66-year-old Mr. Welch’s charms knocked her off her objective game.

Weeks after the fateful interview, Mr. Welch asked if he could spend the holidays with Ms. Wetlaufer and her four kids. She happily agreed to have the private jet deliver him to her Yuletide hearth.

Mr. Welch’s wife of 13 years, Jane, a lawyer who had ditched her career for the Great Man, angrily confronted Ms. Wetlaufer on the phone. The Harvard Business Review was soon without an editor, and Ms. Wetlaufer and Mr. Welch are, as far as is known, living in connubial bliss to this day.

The benchmark for disaster in the sexy Boswell game was set by videographer Rielle Hunter, who signed onto John Edwards’s campaign, allegedly to document the Great Man in action. The action, of course, continued after the director yelled cut. Ms. Rielle ended up not just sacking Mr. Edwards’s career, but getting him a federal indictment for illegal campaign contributions, conspiracy and making false statements in connection with a cover-up of his affair.

From the other side of the Atlantic, in lands un-encumbered with American Puritanism and J-school objectivity training, the seductive female scribe swaggers through public life, often trailing wrecked high-profile marriages.

Young Anna Wintour, in her salad days as a newspaper editor in swinging ’70s London, once disappeared with Bob Marley for a week, according to biographer Jerry Oppenheimer. Mr. Oppenheimer wrote that Island Records founder Chris Blackwell introduced the fashionista to Mr. Marley and got her a backstage pass to one of Mr. Marley’s shows in New York. She immediately “fell for” the sexy Rastamon. She was “riveted” and acted as if she’d “met God,” Mr. Oppenheimer quoted one friend as saying. While the story is impossible to confirm, Ms. Wintour has never explicitly denied that headboard notch.

The greatest female journalist-seducers prowl deeper in the euro zone, in, bien sûr, Paris, the setting for the romance of Anne Sinclair and Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Ms. Sinclair was an accomplished and beautiful national television journalist when she met the dashing Socialist leader and twice-married (at the time, still-married) DSK in 1989. His advisers had sent him to meet with her not to be interviewed but so that he might pick up some media politesse. According to a report in Time, DSK “fell for her immediately, calling her several times a day.” They kept the affair secret for a while, but married in 1991.

France’s current first lady is former Paris Match journalist Valérie Trierweiler, a Brenda Starr lookalike down to the trench coat and cascading auburn cheveux, who first met socialist François Hollande when she was in her 20s and he was a leather-jacket-wearing, open-married lover of Ségolène Royal, the mother of his four children. By 2005, they were having a secret affair. She now sleeps in the Elysée Palace.

Along the way, her very French exploits have included reports that Mr. Hollande shared her with a Sarkozy government minister while all three were still in other relationships—in a fabulous ménage à six. This year, Ms. Trierweiler engaged in a notorious Twitter catfight with Ms. Royal during the French campaign season.

The French, of course, expect women to be catfighting over Great Men. But no self-respecting French woman over there would have sicced the authorities on an rival, as Ms. Kelley is said to have done after Ms. Broadwell’s threatening emails, kicking off the scandal that accomplished what neither Al Qaeda in Iraq nor the Taliban could engineer.

editorial@observer.com

The numbers, which have been closely followed in political circles, showed unemployment rising to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent last month, hitting the average estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. In a separate Bloomberg survey, economists estimated the U.S. would gain 125,000 jobs after adding 114,000 jobs last month.

While the jobs report has been overshadowed in recent days by the storm that rocked the East Coast, halting U.S. markets for two days and raising the specter of a delayed report, job stats have been a focal point amid a presidential campaign that has often focused on the slow pace of recovery in the U.S. economy.

Last month, after the unemployment rate dipped below 8 percent for the first time since 2009, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch questioned the validity of the numbers on Twitter, implying that the numbers had been doctored by the federal government to aid President Obama's re-election campaign.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised the non-farm payroll jobs gained in September upward to 148,000, from 114,000, and said that Hurricane Sandy didn't have a material affect on this month's report.

Mr. Welch has yet to tweet on the October job numbers.

Elsewhere on Wall Street:

Royal Bank of Scotland said it would probably face fines over charges it manipulated inter-bank lending rates such as Libor.

The eight "systemically important" U.S. banks: Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo.

America's midsize banks, including U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial, are opening their own lobbying shops, according to Bloomberg, in a nod to their differing imperatives from larger Wall Street banks.

Rhode Island is suing Barclays, Wells Fargo and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling over inadequate disclosures pertaining to a $75 million loan the state facilitated for Mr. Schilling's video game company, 38 Studios.

"What can we make of this Barclays FERC thing? Besides, like, ha ha ha Barclays you sure like manipulating things?"

Market Folly has notes on David Einhorn's Iron Ore short idea.

The Times’sPeter Lattman on the Bruce-Bharara Bromance: "Before ripping into “Death to My Hometown,” a rollicking Celtic-inspired anthem, Mr. Springsteen shouted, “This is for Preet Bharara!” (Mr. Springsteen name-checks Mr. Bharara a YouTube clip about 22 seconds in.)"

The latest buzz out of Washington is the jobs report may not be released on Friday as originally scheduled due to the severity of Hurricane Sandy. A Labor Department official says a final decision hasn’t been made yet.

The hurricane is unlikely to affect the headline jobs report, according to a FAQ published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics—"In order for sever weather conditions to reduce the estimate of payroll employment, employees have to be off work without pay for the entire pay period"—but a delay would be tracked closely nonetheless.

Last month, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch set off a minor media storm when he suggested that September's positive jobs report may have been the handiwork of President Obama's "Chicago guys" (that Windy City, of course, boasting a rich reputation for fixing numbers).

If the October report was pushed from Friday to Monday, regardless of the results, wouldn't conspiracy theories abound?

Still not kidding.

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch emailed editors at Reuters and Fortune today to let them know that he won't be contributing columns to either publication going forward.

While Mr. Welch's email, published at Fortune, merely notes that he and wife Suzy, with whom Mr. Welch pens his columns, get better "traction" at The Wall Street Journal, Fortune senior editor Stephen Gandel notes that Neutron Jack's resignation follows reporting by the two organizations on a certain somebody's jobs report tweet on Friday.In case you missed that one, Mr. Welch surmised that last month's jobs report—which stated the lowest unemployment rate since January 2009—had been fixed to aid President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Yesterday, Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer went on MSNBC and criticized Mr. Welch's sentiment. Reuters, meanwhile, referred to allegations that during Mr. Welch's tenure at the helm of GE, the firm used well-timed transactions to ensure it hit Wall Street's earning estimates.

For his part, Mr. Welch didn't back down from his tweet. Per Reuters:

"These numbers just don't go with the economic activity," Mr. Welch said. "You draw your own conclusions."

And:

He says he went through reviews of more than a dozen companies in different industries this week and none were stronger in the third quarter than they were in the second. "You can't just call me old and senile," he said.

And we won't.

Not kidding.

Jack Welch is basically the picture of a serious businessman—bald, steely-eyed, author of such titles as Winning and Jack: Straight from the Gut, owner of a rarely (but sometimes!) questioned reputation from his 20-year tenure as the chief executive officer at General Electric. All of which, presumably, is why the Internet took him so seriously this morning when he went on Twitter and said that the fix was in on the monthly jobs report.

First there was the piling on. Florida Congressman Allen West posted a note to Facebook:

I agree with former GE CEO Jack Welch, Chicago style politics is at work here. Somehow by manipulation of data we are all of a sudden below 8 percent unemployment, a month from the Presidential election. This is Orwellian to say the least and representative of Saul Alinsky tactics from the book "Rules for Radicals"- a must read for all who want to know how the left strategize.

The Washington Examiner's Conn Carroll tweeted an alternative conspiracy theory:

Former Chief of Staff for the US Department of Labor Paul Conway told Business Insider to consider the timing:

To have a drop of 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent and have your job-creation number at 114 thousand, at best, it's interesting. At worst, yeah, it is suspicious.

Hook baited, the world responded. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis went on CNBC and said she was "insulted" by the suggestion of bad behavior. Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius pooh-pooed Mr. Welch's suggestion in a note to clients ("For the most part, this looks like a genuine move."). Former Bureau of Labor Statistics head Keith Hall told The Journal that it wasn't impossible to fake the job numbers.

It was all more than a little bit ridiculous. As Henry Blodget pointed out, the jobs numbers were not actually particularly inspiring.

It seemed like it must have been a joke, what with Mr. Welch tied up in meetings and unavailable for comment.

But lo!

“I wasn’t kidding,” he told The Journal finally, adding: “I am doing nothing more than raising the question."

For starters, he's not in favor of lavishing hundreds of millions of dollars on Elizabeth Warren and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Welch: Do I cut that silly consumer protection agency's budget when they gave that Harvard professor $450 million to run a consumer protection agency. Right out of the barrel! $450 million for a budget! Are you crazy?! You can't do that!

Rose: You're not in favor of consumer protection?

Welch: For $450 million as a budget?! ... Maybe for $50 million.

Welch is also opposed to government handouts, and he believes Obama has been bad at creating jobs. Here's the video:

"The first couple of weeks I was on MSNBC, every night I would come home and she would meet me at the door and stare at me and say, 'Stop acting like a jackass on national TV!'" said Mr. Scarborough. "She said this back in 2003. I said, 'Well, that's what I'm getting paid for. They hired me for that reason.'"

"She said, 'You need to be more like Tim Russert,'" he continued. "My response was, 'Well, honey, they already have one of those.' She said, 'They need another.'"

Nearby, Mr. Scarborough's on-air partner, Mika Brzezinski, smiled. She was standing next to Donald Trump, who was wearing a pink tie. Mr. Trump slung his arm around Harold Evans and gazed around the room, which was packed with Morning Joe regulars.
 
Jack Welch, Mike Barnicle, Ray Kelly, Willie Geist, Leslie Stahl, Donnie Deutsch, Mark Halperin, Erin Burnett, Ana Marie Cox, Phil Griffin—they had all gathered at the media watering hole on 55th Street in Manhattan to fete the publication of Mr. Scarborough's new book, The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise.

A few minutes earlier, Tina Brown of the Daily Beast—in hyperkinetic hostess mode—had introduced Mr. Scarborough. "This man is so incredible," she said of MSNBC's morning political talk show host. "He's the only person, other than my husband, who has seen me at that time of the morning."

She ceded the microphone to Mr. Scarborough, who gamely launched into his stump speech on what's ailing the Republican party.

"Conservatives always like to talk about Ronald Reagan," said Mr. Scarborough. "They remember Reagan's ideology but they forget his temperament."

Mr. Scarborough told a story involving Colin Powell, Ronald Reagan and the Oval Office. The punch line  involved Mr. Reagan ignoring Mr. Powell to gaze out the window at some squirrels, which were eating some acorns that he had recently sprinkled in the garden.

"Reagan temperamentally was incapable of hating," said Mr. Scarborough. "If people wanted to fight, scratch, claw and yell, he always rose above that. That's what the Republican Party needs to do. ... If Reagan were alive today, he wouldn't be calling Barack Obama a communist. He wouldn't be calling the next Supreme Court justice—what did he call her?"

Mr. Scarborough scanned the room in search of someone who could recall what Rush Limbaugh had called U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

"A racist?" said Mr. Scarborough. "A reverse racist. This is insane."

"When I hear Rush Limbaugh and others calling Colin Powell a 'liberal' I just have to laugh because there is nothing liberal about Colin Powell's approach towards foreign policy," he said. "So what is a conservative? A conservative conserves taxpayer dollars. A conservative doesn't engage in military adventurism. A conservative doesn't add seven trillion dollars to entitlement programs that are already going bankrupt. A conservative shows restraint."

"The Republican party either reforms or it dies," he added. "Hopefully, they will look at this book and take some cues and actually start acting conservative again."

Everyone clapped, and then promptly returned to vodka tonics and passed mini crab cakes.

Namely, FBN’s blood rival CNBC.

Throughout the morning and continuing into the afternoon, FBN viewers on Time Warner Cable in New York have seen recurring ads for CNBC.

"If you’re stagnant, you’re dead,' says former General Electric CEO Jack Welch in one of the spots. "I love American Business. I watch CNBC."

Some of the ads even give FBN viewers explicit instructions on how to join Mr. Welch in finding CNBC: "Turn now to Channel 15."

The 46th Floor spread was a floor below the previous home of former G.E. chief Jack Welch (who has since fled to the celebrity-filled One Beacon Court).

After divorcing his wife, Jane Beasley, Mr. Welch was forced to purchase the apartment from the corporation for $10.7 million, as The Observer reported in 2003.

Now, it looks like G.E. is getting out of the tony building completely. And with a nice profit, too.

- Michael Calderone

Currently the ritzy building's most expensive apartment was sold to record mogul Alan Meltzer for $27 million. The growing list of the notable names includes Beyonce, Brian Williams, former G.E chief executive Jack Welch, and recently, current G.E. chief Jeffrey Immelt.

-Michael Calderone