Why are deployed troops giving 6 times more campaign donations to Obama than McCain?

Question

Anyone know the reason? This is the article I was reading http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/troops-deployed-abroad-give-61.html

Answer 1

The above answer is wrong-No major veterans organization has announced for ewither candidate yet; they wait until after the party nominations are formalized at the conventions.  As for the other I cn't get to the link but most military personnel do not identify what they are when giving because it is an optional thing and it could be seem as a formal endorsement which is a violation of military regulations; this is why retired Generals advise nd active General's say nothing-the active one's cannot legally do anything.  I though that Ron Paul had the military vote all sewed up before this; so now Sen Obama does.

Answer 2

Well im gonna go out on a limb here..The reason is because they support Senator Mc Cain more then they do Senator Obama..

Answer 3

Every major veterans organization gives Obama higher marks for voting with veterans' interests.  McCain has repeatedly voted against better health care, better education benefits, etc.  Why should they give money to McCain, when he doesn't seem to care about veterans?

Answer 4

McCain has a pretty poor voting record when it comes to Veteran's rights.  Beyond that our troops are deployed with no return date (unlike when McCain went to Vietnam and they had one year deployments and knew it).  They also have a huge risk of stop-loss.  Not exactly pleasant work place issues in an incredibly stressful work environment.

Answer 5

Assuming that your source is accurate, and assuming that those polled are truthful (both of which are shaky assumptions to make, but for the sake of the discussion), I would guess that many service members are thinking that they will be more likely to go home sooner if Obama won in November than if McCain won.

Remember, soldiers are people too, regardless of what they're told during basic and MOS training. They want to go home to their families and sleep in their own beds. Unfortunately, those of us who are kept safe by their struggles need for them to keep the fighting far from our shores, and right now this means that deployment is a fact of life. Agree or disagree with the war--that's irrelevant. The world situation is tense right now, and if it wasn't Iraq or Afghanistan, it would be North Korea or Georgia or some other far flung province. This is just one dummy's opinion :-)

God Bless our troops.

Answer 6

The answer is in the article you cited.  Of course, there is no real 100 percent accurate answer, but here are a couple of quotes:  

"A former West Point professor, Jason Dempsey, noted that the small set of contributions from deployed troops at this point in 2008 -- just 323 donations -- should not be extrapolated to form conclusions about military personnel overall. "If, on a bad day, a guy gets that letter that says [his tour has been extended] from 12 to 15 months, that could spur a quick donation and expression of anger," he said. "Donating helps members of the military express their political views privately."

323 donations is a very small number - we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 130,000 to 140,000 soldiers deployed in Iraq - that means that you have a sample of around two-tenths of one percent.  

Here's another quote that might explain the numbers:

"Seeing political activity of any sort among soldiers is notable, Dempsey added. "It's hard to describe how apolitical a lot of the enlisted ranks are. He's worried about other things than following the news."

I think it's important to read beyond the headlines - one could read that headline and think that soldiers know something we don't know - when in fact the sampling is so low as to make the statistic virtually meaningless.  

I am a teacher, and my students evaluate me.  Once I got a 100 percent quality approval rating, which is almost unheard of.  My ego was stroked until I realized that only three out of my 20 students filled out the form.  

Answer 7

It's a poll.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I don't believe in any polls whether they tell me what I want to hear or not.

Answer 8

may-b cuz hes a democrat

Answer 9

They aren't.  Your source is not truthful.

Answer 10

Because our troops love Obama and know he is going to win.