In case you missed it, a very interesting money story broke today Showing that Obama is out-raising McCain 6-1 among active duty military members serving overseas)( read Troutfishing's Diary on the rec list)
This is a VERY big deal, which The McCain Campaign must have recognized, so they rushed to respond. badly
McCain's campaign says he's been "endorsed by more retired admirals and generals than Barack Obama has military donors."
Which is not only a Lie (CRP esitmates Obama's had at least 854 donors the most generous reading of McCain's "admirals and Generals list" yields a 150 names) but AWFULLY elitist and dismissive of the rank and file soldier no?
but not content to leave it there, McCain’s campaign unleashes a howler worthy of standing alongside Tom Delay's infamous "I wanted to go to Vietnam but the Army said they were full" whopper
They also expect to win the military vote in November, arguing troops overseas "are too busy" defending the country to donate money.
YEP. They said that. "Defending the Country" is such an amazingly taxing 24-7 activity that those poor McCain-supporting dogfaces are too tired to so much as lift a pen and write a check. Contrasted of course with those who've sent money to Obama who manifestly are gold-bricking REMFS who AREN'T out defending the country. Because clearly, if they have time to send him money, by the McCain camps formulation, they aren't pulling their load in the whole "defending America" thing
In fact that’s the one thing these two wildly different statements have strikingly in common. They are incredibly dismissive of soldiers who have decided to support Obama.
"Who cares what REGULAR soldiers think?" The first statement seems to say, "McCain has guys with lots of fruit salad on their class-A's and shiny stars on their shoulders that like HIM and they're BETTER"
And the second part of the statement also, either intentionally or out of general sense of denial from their camp tries to de-legitimize Obama supporting soldiers by claiming they are some sort of aberrant minority; not representative of REAL soldiers.
Okay, I can hear you saying, but is this such a big deal? Why is this anything other than a mildly interesting statistical anomaly?
Two reasons as I see it
- yet another Red to Blue Shift: Historically, voter registration in the all volunteer incarnation of the military has been overwhelmingly Republican. In many ways the membership of the military tends to very closely mirror the demographics, or McCain's hard core base. This donation pattern suggests some significant cracks are developing what used to be the foundation of the Republican party's support.
But much more importantly,
- it Proves Obama is passing the "commander in chief " test. These donations provide the starkest possible evidence that Obama is, among the people for whom it matters most, someone they want and trust as their commander-in-Chief. They are the ones who literally put their lives on the line when the president makes a decision, and despite all of McCain pro-military rhetoric, when rubber meets the road, the ones with the most skin in the game are they are putting their faith in Obama by a factor of six to one.
That's a remarkable statement of faith in him; and I sincerely hope he Obama team goes as wide as possible with it (I’d also like to Team Obama scour their databases and see how high this number REALLY is. Remember the CRP analysis only deals with the $200+ reported contributions. I wonder how many more soldiers we'll find if we look in the $25, $50, etc levels).
We need to make as big a deal as we can. This sends a message that needs to be repeated as often as possible:
Not only does Obama support the troops, but the Troops support him-overwhelmingly