I was wondering when his name would bubble to the surface (warfare). He was the commencement speaker at my son's UM graduation a few years back when he was SACEUR (sorry folks, l'm retired military and the acronyms come easily). Interesting seeing a grad speaker is service dress whites. The irony is, my son had earned an NROTC scholarship coming out of HS, but he wanted Miami, so he remitted it. Stavridis speech was relatively (and thankfully) brief and focused on how he hadn't planned on being a career naval officer, but things changed and he wanted the graduates to realize that that in life conditions change and "you never know" how these changes can affect your plans or goals.
The ironies continued on our family post-graduation trip to the Armed Forces Rec Center in the Bavarian Alps. On Armed Forces Network TV they don't run commercials, but PSAs and "Command-sponsored" messages. Stavridis was very unusual in that, unlike his USEUCOM Commander predecessors I had seen stationed over there, his PSAs were more frequent, they featured him and his wife, and he was in civilian clothing doing things like traditional German Volksmarching and cooking. A very different approach...
At the graduation, Donna said the expected nice things about a comencement speaker, but I did detect a bit of a bond between them. The USSOUTHCOM Commander residence is near the campus, so I imagine that may have had something to do with it.
As far as the military vs. liberal issue, it depends on his political affiliation and who appointed him to his highest rank. Democrats and Republicans (and officers gunning for flag rank) know that you don't make it to the top ranks unless you are appointed by the President. Henceforth, each of the parties think of their appointees as "Their general" or "their admiral" and expect some loyalty in return.
The IG allegation hurt him a bit, even though he was cleared. After Marine General Jones, the army guys thought with Army General Craddock as SACEUR, things would be back to normal, i.e. army generals as boss in perpetuity. I'm imagining when Stavridis got the job, they went ape and tried the anonymous allegation crap; it backfired and now they are now under an Air Force General after all their efforts.
Obviously, since the DoD thing might be a non-starter due to the IG perception, Stavridis is trying to burnish his non-military credentials beyond Tufts for a potential Under-Secretary cabinet post in State, Commerce or Homeland Security. After the whole Cuba 180 a couple of days ago, it looks like he may be helped getting the UM President job because of his SOUTHCOM experience.