I'm shocked, shocked to hear that the troops don't want to stay in Iraq for 100 years with John McCain!

I saw that ABC News report as well. Actually, three of the soldiers interviewed expressed support for Obama, and two of them for Hillary, and one for McCain. And the way they chose soldiers from the crowd to stick a mike in front of looked extremely random. To draw any conclusion that the troops prefer Obama from that news story is not possible.

And I believe one of the Hillary supporters also mentioned coming home.

My uncle was a pretty hard core conservative before he fought in Iraq.

He's an Obama supporter now.

Doesn't surprise this vet.

Vet's like to hear plans for military servicemen getting healthcare. They like hearing about making sure vets have enough equipment to survive in a war zone. They like pay increases too.

They also like the idea of seeing their children grow up, instead of being stuck 3,000-8,000 miles away every other year. They like the idea of a guy being in charge who would not go into Iran needlessly.

Also, remember that the service is a pretty diverse organization. I believe that most of the service, primarily in enlisted ranks, has a 55-25-20 split along racial lines (white-black-hispanic) or roundabout those figures. Officers, not so much.

Of course, the NCO corps is extremely diverse, with a large number of those Soldiers coming from minority groups in this country, some much so that I think the enlisted ranks are minority/majority. I don't have the link immediately available for the figures from DOD, but I recall (anecdotally and otherwise) that was certainly the case in my unit.

Only the Officer Corps remains predominantly white-majority.

I saw the piece last night and found it surprising as well. First, because with these anecdotal pieces, the media usually bends over backwards to make it even between candidates. There were definitely more pro-Obama people, and they even left the impression that there were others who didn't make it to camera.

Partially I'm wondering if it's a function of the generation like everyone else in the country -- young people are drawn to Obama and his message, and the vast majority of those in our military are under 35. (Though I did love seeing that older woman grin and say "Obama" when asked who she was supporting.)

But the radical right spew they are all gop.

"Obama Holds First Committee Meeting Before Petraeus Hearing":

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/08/obama-holds-first-committ_n_95593.html

But he is a forign policy expert. No need for hearings.

Yeah, give him a free pass on this outrage too.

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!

It may seem counterintuitive, but it's not actually terribly surprising.

It's the officer corps that has, over the past few decades, grown increasingly politically conservative. I'm sure that if you surveyed currently serving officers, you'd find support for McCain predominant.

But think for a moment about our nation's military. The average age of an active-duty service member is about 25 - in the reserve, it's closer to 33. All the services are predominantly male. Service members are disproportionately members of minority groups, and the average household incomes both of the homes in which they grow up and of those in which they presently live are below the national medians.

Given all of those demographic factors, what's most surprising about the military is that the enlisted ranks aren't overwhelmingly Democratic. The best study of this stuff is Feaver and Kohn's "Soldiers and Civilians." Studies compiled in the book use data (mostly from the 1990s) to show that the senior brass splits about 62-10%, Republican/Democratic. Those entering the military who expected to be officers showed a less dramatic skewing, typically self-identifying as Republicans or Conservatives 5-15% more frequently than a similar cohort of civilians, or than their peers entering the enlisted ranks. Those numbers went up as they spent more time in the military. And the enlisted population broadly mirrored the split within society as a whole.

So let's think about that for a moment. We've got a population that's largely composed of young men. It's heavily minority. And it (anecdotally) supports Obama? Who'd have thunk it?