Frank Bruni makes sense when he says that it's not sex or anything physical that drew somebody like General Petraeus to Paula Broadwell, 20 years his junior with a fatless body.

It's old-fashioned narcissism.

Broadwell was excessively worshipful of the CIA chief in the manner that many younger men and women are of their admirable, older-counterparts.

These mighty men didn’t just choose mistresses, by all appearances. They chose fonts of gushing reverence [...] He was having an affair with a version of himself.