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When presidents were military men
StarTribune.com ^ | 25 May, 2012 | John Nagl

Posted on 05/25/2012 10:16:29 PM PDT by brityank

When presidents were military men

Article by: John Nagl , Special to the Washington Post | Updated: May 25, 2012 - 11:52 AM

In every presidential election since 1992, the candidate with the less distinguished military resume has triumphed.

Bill Clinton defeated war heroes George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole; National Guard pilot George W. Bush beat Vietnam veterans Al Gore and John Kerry; and Barack Obama was decisively elected over John McCain, who had displayed extraordinary valor during years of captivity as a Navy pilot in North Vietnam.

In 2012, we won't have the chance to test this trend: For the first time in modern American history, neither major candidate for the presidency has any military experience.

This is a dramatic change. The crucible of combat not only created these United States but has also given us many of our most successful presidents.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wars have given the United States many of its most important political leaders, and we can expect those who have led this country's sons and daughters in the sands of Anbar province and the mountains of the Hindu Kush to turn their sights to the highest office in the land in years to come.


(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: military; potus
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To: Tennessee Nana
You are eligible to be president !!!

Hell, YOUR eligible to be president, your family bible has more background than all of Ubama's "History"!

Lols, You and My Mother were both born as Her Majesty's subjects (something else you share with ubama! J.K......or am I?)

So your G.G.G. Fathers people fled from the U.S. to Canada, back to the U.S., Australia, then New Zealand? Never left the English speaking world.

What made you want to come to America? I guess your family hailed from there.

You were in the service the same time as my Dad! Maybe you all met sometime!? Though I don't know how often the A.F. works with the Marine Corp.

41 posted on 05/26/2012 9:47:19 AM PDT by KC_Lion (I am finished with listening to empty promises of the great GOP saving me in 4 more years.)
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To: KC_Lion

I was also born a British subject but registered on a New Zealand birth certificate a month later when the citizenship changed in January 1949...

I often wonder why my BC is one whole month after I was born but we lived in a tiny town and Mom might have had to wait until the new forms arrived...

I had a New Zealand passport that I applied for the day I turned 21 but I could have gotten a British one too...

I guess thats dual citizenship !!!

BTW I was born with the same citizenship as Obama’s father...

Does that mean I can be POTUS ???


42 posted on 05/26/2012 10:41:04 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana (Why should I vote for Bishop Romney when he hates me because I am a Christian)
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To: HiTech RedNeck; Forty-Niner
26 posted on Sat May 26 2012 07:42:16 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by HiTech RedNeck: “I think the latter heroes COULD take that as a kind of compliment. Which is why I’ve never understood why, say, Marines have proudly told stories of assaulting citizens who’ve bought Marine stuff in some surplus store and were wearing it without the “full appreciation.” It’s a compliment, for gosh darn sakes. Why can’t you accept it.”

Intent counts and I realize some people really don't know what they're doing. If somebody’s desire is to honor servicemembers by wearing something military, some veteran needs to politely but firmly explain the problem to them. As conservatives, let's admit that honest ignorance exists, and it's getting worse because large numbers of people have never met someone currently in the service, they don't have any family members or friends who have served in the past, and the result is some people do things who really don't know any better.

The problem is not people wearing a Marine T-shirt or putting an Army bumper sticker on their car. The problem is that, as Forty-Niner pointed out, some people are claiming something they have not earned. We don't tolerate people claiming college degrees they have not earned or putting jobs on their resume where they have not worked. What other “training” or “job” has the requirement to write a blank check to the United States for any amount up to and including your life?

Occasionally I run into people who don't realize that Army Public Affairs today is mostly civilians, so I go **WAY** out of my way to correct misunderstandings in the rare cases when I learn that someone thinks because I spent time working in Army Public Affairs after 9/11, I wore the uniform. I'm not entitled to the respect our veterans have earned for their service, and as a non-veteran, I'm not happy when I see others claiming things they have not earned.

43 posted on 05/26/2012 10:44:56 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: KC_Lion

It was my 2 gg who went to New Zealand...

His mother was born in the US...Vermont..

Both sides of my gggg and ggggg were Loyalists and fled to Canada..

His grandparents and great grandparents both sides...

One family from New Rochelle NY by way of the Susquehanna River Valley (”Up the River”) in PA...Wyoming Co

The other from Albany NY and the Mohawk River...Herkimer Co

His grandparents met and married in Montreal in 1784 after the War...the families were refugees at Sorel amd Machiche..


44 posted on 05/26/2012 10:57:20 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana (Why should I vote for Bishop Romney when he hates me because I am a Christian)
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To: ansel12

His 5 husky sons no doubt feel the same about Iraq/Afghanistan.


45 posted on 05/26/2012 11:12:36 AM PDT by MSF BU (n)
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To: Tennessee Nana
None of Willards forebears did...

Well, they left Britain for Utah which was barely part of the US at the time, and then left the US for Mexico during the polygamy dispute, so they weren't really around for some of those wars. Age also had something to do with it. Romney's grandfathers were too old for WWI, to say nothing of WWII. George Romney did play a key role in production during WWII.

Cousin George Ottinger Romney gave up a Rhodes Scholarship to serve in WWI. In WWII he was Chief of Recreation and Club Unit Services to the United States Armed Forces through the Red Cross. Cousin Vernon B. Romney served in the artillery in the Pacific. Vernon's brother Ralph who died in 2010 was in the Navy.

46 posted on 05/26/2012 11:44:48 AM PDT by x
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To: x; MSF BU; Tennessee Nana

Willard’s line is clearly anti-American, and against serving America.

Which is largely what you expressed in your post, Mexico was part of the Romney tradition of anti-Americanism, and his line could have enlisted at any time during the family history including in Utah, but they have a dedicated rule of not doing so evidently.

The Romney’s arrived here to serve Joseph Smith, and have done so ever since, without interruption.

A handful of devotees here at FR serve the Romneys.


47 posted on 05/26/2012 12:28:34 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12
Well, Romney comes from a class and a generation that wasn't big on military service. So does Obama, and Biden, and Gingrich, and Santorum, and most famously, Cheney.

One or more of Romney's sons should have gone into the military, if only as a military lawyer as Biden's son did. It would have handily defused this issue.

I'd caution you against holding what Romney's ancestors may have done against the man himself. One presidential candidate did come from a strongly pacifist religious sect that rejected war and had traditions of draft resistance.

That candidate's name was Dwight David Eisenhower.

48 posted on 05/26/2012 1:09:45 PM PDT by x
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To: darrellmaurina

Does a Marine shirt or Army bumper sticker claim membership in same any more than a Coca Cola shirt claim that you work for the Coca Cola company? I would wear a Coca Cola shirt to say I think Coca Cola is a great product.

I think some vets are taking the bullying tone (as necessary as it may prove) of their basic training, a bit TOO seriously.


49 posted on 05/26/2012 1:31:18 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou, let me ABOs run loose! They are of much use Lou, so let me ABOs run loose)
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To: ansel12

Joseph Smith (figuratively) could wish he got more attention from Mitt Romney. If he did, Mitt would never have gotten himself embroiled in gay marriage, and probably not in Romneycare either.


50 posted on 05/26/2012 1:33:14 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou, let me ABOs run loose! They are of much use Lou, so let me ABOs run loose)
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To: x

Well you made that up, Romney comes from the last great military generation, almost 9.5 million of them served, and that doesn’t explain his sons and ALL before him in his line refusing to serve.

West Point graduate and General Dwight D. Eisenhower has nothing to apologize for because his parents joined Jehovah’s Witness after he was born. I don’t think that Dwight’s only son who survived childhood, Brigadier General John Eisenhower complained, nor his only son, Ike’s grandson David, worried about it during his time as a military officer.

The America hating Romney’s came to America solely to serve a cult, and they have never wavered or strayed from the cult srevice, or their refusal to America.


51 posted on 05/26/2012 1:48:33 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Are you kidding?

Bishop Romney is among the most devout and devoted Joseph Smith devotees, he is among the tiny 15% core of the deepest worshipers and leaders of Mormonism.

Mitt held a private meeting with their holy Prophet to get approval to run for president before he started the process.

Is this the first time that you have tried that line or have people had to correct your before on this?


52 posted on 05/26/2012 1:52:38 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12
Well you made that up, Romney comes from the last great military generation, almost 9.5 million of them served, and that doesn’t explain his sons and ALL before him in his line refusing to serve.

I'm talking about the poltical-professional-managerial class. Most of the current members of Congress who served in the military are older than Obama and older than Romney.

The America hating Romney’s came to America solely to serve a cult, and they have never wavered or strayed from the cult srevice, or their refusal to America.

So George Romney was doing what during the war? Making Panzers and Messerschmidts?

53 posted on 05/26/2012 1:54:31 PM PDT by x
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Joseph Smith (figuratively) could wish he got more attention from Mitt Romney. If he did, Mitt would never have gotten himself embroiled in gay marriage, and probably not in Romneycare either.

Are you under the impression that the man who created a cult so that he could get rich and have 50 wives, was a believer in "one man, one woman marriage as God's final word", or that one of his Bishops, a descendant of the original founders, and a member of Mormon royalty was out of touch with Mormonism?

54 posted on 05/26/2012 1:59:21 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: x

You were talking about a generation, and a class, a class which has produced many veterans during not only Mitt’s life, but during the 170 years of his line’s history of anti-Americanism and refusing to serve in the military.

As your mythical hero tells us, he comes from a humble, non rich family, with a dad that didn’t even graduate college,”where someone like my dad, who grew up poor and never graduated from college”, and from an even poorer ancestry, according to him.

Congress is full of young vets, even of the ages of his sons.


55 posted on 05/26/2012 2:10:18 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

Oh, Smith got himself well and truly into a lot of immorality with his harem. And if he worshiped mammon too, so much more the shame. But there is no trace of any idea that queers would have flown with him — or if there is, I’d like to know about it. And Romneycare has been a financial disaster for Massachusetts, hardly something that someone who wants to get rich (at least in free enterprise) would want.


56 posted on 05/26/2012 2:12:01 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou, let me ABOs run loose! They are of much use Lou, so let me ABOs run loose)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

You will have to do much better than that to show us that the golden boy of Mormonism, perhaps even the fulfillment of the ‘white horse prophecy’ as believed by some Mormons about Bishop Romney, and who has the personal support and approval of the present day Joseph Smith, the holy prophet, is out of favor with the cult.


57 posted on 05/26/2012 2:24:57 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

You think the LDS would seriously have said no to Mitt about his run?

I agree heartily with you, LDS is phony through and through. It looks like someone took a plain vanilla mainstream Christianity and then punked it up with early science fiction and polygamy. Scientology might be the best contemporary comparison.

But given that, he’s doing with respect to his “church” what, say, a serious Catholic or Protestant might do with respect to his. He talks with his local elders before embarking on some new career path. If the LDS were not this really weird thing, nobody would think twice about it.

If Mitt is in the deepest 15% and Mitt still isn’t totally decided what to do about a signal issue like “gay marriage” — though his latest flip flop IS against it — well I say it proves his church is shallow garbage, which I never contested.

But let’s get some perspective. Nobody would even be giving Mitt the time of day if it weren’t for Obama being so horrible through and through.

I look at how the pitiful primaries went. If some conglomeration of Ricks Perry and Santorum, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and yes even Michelle Bachmann could have been pasted together and ran as one person — Mitt would have been bumped out of the picture. (As a Sarah Palin run almost certainly would have also done.) Instead we saw a herd of cats. I thought during this time ‘d see FR pages busy with coordinations of physical freeps that would actually DO something. I didn’t. And still don’t. FR is still largely a spectator sport.


58 posted on 05/26/2012 2:27:50 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou, let me ABOs run loose! They are of much use Lou, so let me ABOs run loose)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
But given that, he’s doing with respect to his “church” what, say, a serious Catholic or Protestant might do with respect to his. He talks with his local elders before embarking on some new career path.

Way, way far from what I posted, I said that Mitt Romney had a private meeting with his holy prophet seeking permission, the prophet of God who is higher than the Pope, JFK did not need permission from the Pope, and who would a Protestant ask permission from?

Bishop Romney belongs to a cult, if he breaks a rule, such as not turning over at least 10% of his income, then he does not become God, he can't even enter those temples, or witness his children's weddings if they are among the elites, being Mormon is not like being a Christian.

59 posted on 05/26/2012 2:40:06 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

What’s the LDS structure, isn’t this “super Pope” the next step up over the bishop? Is this the tip top one, or is there more? It’s not clear to me.

JFK wasn’t a bishop. If he was, then before running he’d doubtless consult an archbishop. As a layman, he’d have spoken with a priest. Mitt’s a bishop, and got that way before ever countenancing a presidential run. Sounds like they expect that the higher you are in the church, the higher you should be consulting before doing something that would have significant impact.

It’s a private organization. The beauty of America, however, is that you can choose what private organization you want to be in and that private organization can’t keep you from leaving it. If Mitt finally decided that this LDS stuff was garbage and that he ought to go mainstream Christian, he’d get tons of opprobrium and a cold shoulder from the LDS, but they could not legally stop him.


60 posted on 05/26/2012 2:49:00 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou, let me ABOs run loose! They are of much use Lou, so let me ABOs run loose)
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