Clark and the Military Vote

[ThomWV]

It seems to me that Clark might well be able to grab a good bit of the military vote that is generally considered, rightly or wrongly, to belong to the Republicans. Whenever he answers questions about his support for both the military and veterans he wins the hearts of those groups and absolutly no one one either side doubts that he means it. I think even the youngest of our men and women in uniform are worldly enough to understand the imposter that Bush is a flightsuit compared to Clark in a business suit, but the General non the less.

Anyway its a though, just a part of the traditional Republican voting block that might be up for grabs.

[joeybee12]

1. True, but because of how badly Dumbo has screwed the military any Dem...

...will get a large block of that vote.

[Clark Can WIN]

8. yep I'd love to see how DK would get a

huge military vote, or even Dean.

on edit both say things I like very much, but I disagree with the notion that all Dems could capture the military vote.

[RandomUser]

12. Good point

Not all the Dem candidates will be able to get the military vote.

[lovedems]

2. Yeah,

considering the absolute mess Iraq and Afganistan are. Shrub and his neocons in the pentagon don't have a clue what they are doing and who is effected by that? The folks in the military and their families.

Then you have Kosovo(still laughed at by rethuglicans) and how many troops were killed? a big fat ZERO! Where is the nasty little booger Milosivich? At the Hague getting his justice. Geez, imagine that, we went to save a country from ethnic cleansing AND FOUND THE BIG BAD GUY. Those were the good ol' days.

[RandomUser]

11. I agree

It's not enough to get them to hate bush -- they'll just stay home. You need to energize them and get them to rally around and believe in the Dem nominee.

If Bush keeps screwing up in Iraq, he may not get the military vote. But neither will the Dem nominee if they don't like him. Clark shines in this area.

[Kahuna]

3. Do you really think the repukes will count absentee military

votes this time? If you believe that, I've got a nice bridge to sell ya. :7

[NNN0LHI]

4. Still a lot of family members and veterans will be in a voting booth n/t

[Kahuna]

10. Good point! I wasn't trying to ..

argue with the subject of the thread. I was just adding my two cents about counting the military absentee ballets. I do agree that smirko can kiss the military vote goodbye.

[Taxi Driver]

5. I don't think

that the military is a significant voting bloc. They vote Republican because Republicans give pay increases. The question is: Do they want to get paid more or to get out of Iraq?

[fujiyama]

6. The republicans give them pay increases?

I don't know where you're getting your news but republicans are continuing to cut veteran's benefits and military pay hasn't gone up one bit as far as I know.

[RandomUser]

13. The military voting block extends beyond the military

I don't think that the military is a significant voting bloc.

It includes military families and all those people who have had a family tradition of serving the country going back generations. There are large swathes of the south, where serving the country is a central cultural theme. Small towns, like the one where Jessica Lynch came from, have a devoted patriotism meme. The military is an escape valve for people needing money to further their education, and a way out of depressed local economies. They believe in serving the country, and almost everyone knows someone who has served, going back generations.

[Clark Can WIN]

7. Not only that, the military voting bloc resides heavily in

Southern states, which we need desperately to win back after the last two elections. Just one more reason why Clark Can WIN.

[jumptheshadow]

9. Clark and Kerry have a great shot at this vote

But especially Clark. Dean is much weaker here because of his deferment, yes, military families may vote for him but they won't be as energized as they would be for Clark or Kerry. Clark, however, must excel in his upcoming speeches because he hasn't had much of a media forum in the past two weeks.

Unfortunately, that means lots of good sound bites. The "Bush is a miserable failure" kind of sound bites that get picked up by the media and by other candidates.

I hope that Clark's speechwriting team is working on a couple targeted directly to the military audience. The raw material for these sound bites certainly is there.

[Donna Zen]

14. The impact of the military vote

goes well beyond the bountries of the active duty people. There is a huge web of families, vets and the communities surrounding bases that are effected by the mindset. The perception that Dems don't support the troops has been sold and bought by these various groups. At the national level, Dems have consistently supporter vets, and many Dems have never seen a weapons system they didn't like.

The problem we face when chosing a candidate is two fold. For the those who never bought the war, we need someone who was on our side. For the recently converted, we need to offer a candidate that assures them that while they may have been fooled; they are not "fools."

Basically, this is a scale of proportions. Any Dem may get some of the vote, but Clark will win most, if not all, of this vote.

What is most important about trend, is that first, it is dangerous, really dangerous to have the military in the hands of one party. Clark also knows, who is moving up the system who would both provide him with allies in the any battles to get rid of pork, but would set a new tone in the Pentagon. Rummy has quietly been doing just the opposite for three years.

Second, it makes junior-rover spend money and time on what should be their base.

[fknobbit]

15. Debunking Republican pay raises.

I spent 22 Yrs in the U.S.A.F and remember every screwing the repukes handed down... Ike said the Gi's did not need any money for anything but Cigarettes and beer. Rayguns first official act was to freeze military pay. the second was to arbitrarily kick some thousands of Veterans out of the V.A. system, past Federal judges were less right leaning and would not allow it. Graham Rudman prevented realistic cost of living increases. It goes on and on but the correction I would like to make is this:

Current Military pay raises were proposed to and passed by Congress 5 years in advance and it's up to the current administration to request the funding for the current years proposed raise.

in 1999 Clinton, well actually it was Sec Def Cohen, sought to bring military pay more in line with civilian sectors to improve retention. Clinton's 5 year plan consisting of large percentage raises proposed while Clinton was President to pass and sign it. Bush is now taking credit for Clinton's pay raise.

Kerry seems to be the only Candidate who is able to pronounce Veteran and for some reason it's as if Clark is taking the fifth on the Veterans issues. He missed a hell of a chance during the latest debate and deferred to Kerry and Sharpton.