Posted on 09/25/2012 2:15:18 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
One theme of my live-blogging of the Democratic Convention was the bid for the votes of veterans. On all three nights, the Democrats used vets and/or their family members to vouch for President Obama’s efforts on behalf of veterans. As I noted at the time, the Dems seemed to view veterans as another “victim” group to take care of.
Fortunately, Team Obama’s pitch to veterans has so far fallen flat. As Politico puts it, “President Barack Obama is trying hard to win veterans, but it looks like they’d prefer a new commander in chief.”
Politico bases this conclusion on polling data. Nationwide, says Politico, Romney has a commanding 20-percentage-point lead over Obama. “It’s no contest,” says Maurice Tamman, a Reuters data news editor who has polled veterans.
In May, Obama was actually leading Romney among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. But a Reuters/Ipsos poll from September finds Romney now up 48 percent to 34 percent with this sub-class.
Why is Obama striking out with vets? The Romney campaign cites three factors: (1) opposition to the looming potential defense cuts under the budget sequester, (2) problems with Obama’s foreign policy positions, and (3) the backdrop of the stagnant economy that’s left the post-Sept. 11 generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with a difficult time finding work when they return home
These sound like plausible explanations to me. Taken together, they suggest that veterans view themselves as Americans first, not as a discrete victim class, and thus aren’t highly susceptible to the “look what we’ll do for your group” pitch that dominates the Democrats’ playbook.
However, Romney should not take veterans for granted, as he appeared to do when he failed to mention our troops in Afghanistan during his speech accepting the Republican nomination. There are nearly 1 million vets in both Ohio and Virginia, and about 1.6 million in Florida. Romney should expect Obama to pitch them again during the upcoming debates. He should be ready to hammer Obama on defense cuts and foreign policy weakness, and to cure his oversight in not praising those who have put (and are putting) themselves on the line for America.
“In May, Obama was actually leading Romney among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans.”
I don’t even know how this could be possible. Under obama, there have been more NEEDLESS American deaths than throughout the entire rest of the war in Afghanistan, not to mention handing Iraq over to Iran making all the deaths and mutilations and sacrifices of our Troops utterly in vain.
Yeah. They gave a few speeches. Whoop de doo.
Is this the first time neither presidential candidate is a vet?
No. I know that neither Herbert Hoover or Franklin Roosevelt were veterans and I’m sure there are more.
FDR was Secretary of the Navy—but if that counts as being in the service I suppose being C in C would too and Zero is about as much a military man as Tiny Tim..
He was Assistant Secretary of the Navy and those types of positions are held by civilians, so he was not a member of the armed forces.
Obama sends form letter to parents of Seals killed in Afghanistan, but sends personal letter to dead rapper’s family:
I also seem to recall a letter sent by bereaved parents of a soldier killed in Afghanistan. Can’t find it on the web, but the jist of it was something like this:
We could understand if our son was killed in battle. But he was killed by supposed fellow Afghan soldiers.
In other words, due to your failed policies, Mr. O.
The GOP talks about helping soldiers, raising their pay, giving them what they need on the battlefield. The Democrats talk about helping vets after they leave the military. My theory is, the Dems want as many dead and crippled vets as possible so they can turn them into another dependent class. That’s why Dems always cut funding for the DoD, why they always say “the war is lost”, why they do their best to lower the morale of active-duty soldiers during the war.
Regardless of how many senseless deaths or budget cuts, regardless of what a pantywaist Obama is, there are a lot of black people in the military and they are going to vote for him.
It isn't and wasn't. The same pollsters were working in those days as are today.
If Romney is up only 20% among veterans, Obama can call that a moral victory.
It's more pronounced among active duty personnel. My son is there. He has completed 2.5 tours in the Middle East. Even there he told me his informal polling has it about 80/20 for Romney.
Anyone who lets one of these pollsters influence his or her vote should see me about some really fine vacation property on Europa I'm willing to let go at an excessively reasonable price.
This brings us to the biggest polling scam of them all. Many of the demographic groups share warm bodies. Nevertheless, with nearly every large group, Romney leads in the so called "internals." These days they never quite add up to the massive lead he has to have in the big picture. Instead he is always behind, but within the "margin of error."
When the numbers make zero sense, I sense an pollster agenda. It's getting laughable that the litany of bad news that has daily additions all strengthen the Obama candidacy...so says the press and confirmed by the pollsters.
Finally, it may be that 47% depend on the government for largesse, but it says right here that some percent of these people (5%...10%...?) aren't pleased with that lot.
I find it hard to believe we aren't about to see a blowout of Reagan-Mondale ratios.
I can’r even begin to understand why ANY Veteran who loves this country, even the gay ones, could vote for a CiC that would lay down THEIR lives FOR our sworn enemies the way obama has done.
Bingo ^^^^^
“Is this the first time neither presidential candidate is a vet?”
“This year marks the first year since Franklin Roosevelt and Thomas Dewey faced off against each other in 1944 that neither major party candidate for President will have served in the military at some point in their life (Democratic VP nominee Harry Truman did serve in World War One, andFDR was Asst. Secretary of the Navy during World War I, but never served in uniform). “
Newsmax
Obama Sweep! Now Leads in All Key States, Even N.C., Nevada, Colo.
Monday, September 24, 2012 06:47 PM
By: Todd Beamon
President Barack Obama leads GOP challenger Mitt Romney, according to polls in 10 key swing states, with margins ranging from as little as 4 percentage points to as many as 12 percentage points.
This, according to Real Clear Politics, despite the president’s unpopularity and poor record of high unemployment, lost jobs and a sputtering economy.
34% of military still likes him...go figure.
Maybe they need to deploy to Afghanistan some more
I would add another reason; a go-nowhere Afghanistan strategy that is costing American soldiers their lives.
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