Dems get new crop of military voters

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Politico

An interesting subtext to John McCain’s defeat last week is what it means for the future of the Republican Party with respect to veterans and military voters. With McCain facing a diminished role in the GOP, and Chuck Hagel retiring from the Senate, there are few prominent Republican leaders left with military bona fides. This is in stark contrast to the Democratic Party, which has seen the emergence of a new generation of veteran leaders.

In the past two election cycles, Democrats have added ten new Democratic veterans to Congress. Last week, President-elect Barack Obama helped close the gap among military voters, winning 44 percent of veterans as opposed to John F. Kerry’s 41 percent in 2004.

To anyone who survived the bruising campaigns of the 1990’s, the thought that the Republican Party would surrender its stranglehold on military voters seems unbelievable. But the reality is that this image was never more than surface deep. All those political operatives who seemed to care so deeply about the heroic service of Republican nominees in 1992 and 1996 thought nothing of denigrating and attacking the service of Al Gore and John Kerry when it was the Republican candidate who had avoided serving in Vietnam.

Republicans did not always have a lock on military voters. Prior to Vietnam, military service was seen as an obligation of all Americans – regardless of political affiliation or wealth. George H.W. Bush and John F. Kennedy were both sons of privileged, politically-connected families who served heroically in the military during World War II. Back then, this was seen as your duty as an American – and no political party could lay an exclusive claim to the flag.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15455.html

[Burma Jones]

1. I am ecstatic that we're finally starting to put the 60s to rest......

WWII was a fight over the survival of Western Democracy.......we have not had another such fight since......

[Kolesar]

3. Kosovo and Bosnia were noble attempts to end an ethnic war

If you give the US the benefit of the doubt. Korea was about resetting borders. You are right that there has been no fight of the scale of WW2 and destroying fascism.

I am ashamed of the US' naked aggression against Mexico, Spain, Nicaragua (x4), Cuba, Chile, and the covert action against Venezuela. There's many more.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. And those #'s are with the airwaves flooded with Rush Gasbag on AFN.

[DogPoundPup]

4. Great point...doesn't get time on Voice of America piped to the troops? n/t

[AndyTiedye]

6. The Troops Get FAUXNEWS

[EFerrari]

5. I wonder where they got the 41% number for Kerry. I don't believe it.

It must have been higher than that. If Bush had the majority, he would have beat us over the head with it and he did not.

[alfredo]

8. Military votes were disallowed due to caging, especially if you had a

"Black Name" or home of record was in a Blue area.

[EFerrari]

9. Yes -- I remember Greg Palast reporting on that. That's right!

[saigon68]

7. when it was the Republican candidate who had avoided serving in Vietnam.

Yes the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

"Bring Em On"

[qwlauren35]

10. Just curious: who are the ten Dem senator/veterans?

I only know about Kerry.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. K&R