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October 04, 2004
Troop survey favors Bush over Kerry
President George Bush garnered nearly three-quarters of military votes in a newspaper survey, according to the Military Times newspapers.Bush leads Democratic Sen. John Kerry 73 percent to 18 percent in the survey of 4,165 active-duty, National Guard and reserve subscribers to Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times and Air Force Times, which are owned by the Gannett Co.
It's certainly not a random sample - the 4,000+ voluntary respondents were overrepresented by career military - but they may be more likely to vote than younger troops.
Posted by Deb at October 4, 2004 05:01 PM
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Comments
The poll was very inaccurate, scientifically speaking. In other words, it cannot be relied upon for any purpose other than to assess the opinions of 4,000 military volunteers. Unfortunately, these soldiers are mixing up their military obligation to support the commander-in-chief with their civilian obligation to objectively evaluate the performance of a politician.
Posted by: SJ at October 6, 2004 04:07 AM
Yep, and the unscientific nature of the poll was clearly acknowledged in the story. However, your point that the troops are not objective is baloney. The respondents are largely career military who have more reason than younger enlisted to objectively evaluate past performance of the current C-in-C and potential from Kerry. Bush wants to win, they want to win. These men are intelligent and have been well trained to make objective informed decisions. What I've heard, over and over, is that they have no confidence in Kerry. It has nothing to do with loyalty to Bush based on "obligation", although many of the ones I've talked with are intensely loyal to him.
Posted by: Deb at October 6, 2004 01:38 PM
Well, we agree on one thing: the survey was scientifically invalid and thus unreliable.
The argument that longer-term personnel are more capable of *objectively* evaluating the commander-in-chief's performance than shorter-term personnel is not necessarily true.
One could easily and effectively show that as people spend more time within an organization, they become more convinced that the leaders of that organization are most qualified to lead.
For example, take the case of employees at Pan-Am or TWA Airlines. Undoubtedly, an inordinate amount *believed* that their leaders were superior to all others. It is also likely that they had little or no confidence in other leaders.
In fact, this was a false belief.
Pan-Am and TWA Airlines went out of business, even though their employees exhibited intense loyalty in the face of many objective indicators capable of persuading them otherwise.
So, we return to the original contention that the poll helped confuse loyalty with objectivity.
The real question that begs for an answer revolves around the motivation to conduct such a useless poll and publish it as if it had substantive value!
Posted by: SJ at October 6, 2004 07:24 PM
It's pretty obvious to me why our military would favor Bush, and I firmly believe the poll is accurate. Kerry has done nothing but trash the military since 1971. He wants Iraq to be Vietnam, because that is the only meaningful thing he's ever been involved in. If he is elected, I have no doubt that Kofee Anan will be appointed the new commander of our military. It's just a matter of time before Kerry starts comparing our trooops in Iraq with the armies of Ghengis Khan...
Posted by: devil_dogma at October 6, 2004 07:38 PM
bush is a false turkey for the military, the congress is unconstitutional by donating its right to go to war to a bunch of deserters and the election college still appoints the pres.
Four more years and our country is owned by Japan and Germany because we`re broke and our troops are at war with all cracy fundamentalists allover the middle east. Sometimes thinking twice might make the difference.
Bush`s only argument is fear, the fear he is invocating over and over. Perceive it!
P.S. evil_dogma: buy a copy of fahrenheit 9/11!
(maybe is exaggerated, but at least it didn`t cost the lives of more than ten thousands, as did Bush`s iraq estimates of WMDs and BinLaden links)
Posted by: ildeb at October 7, 2004 11:28 AM
While one of the things our troops have defended over the years is freedom of speech, I do not feel any particular obligation to provide a soapbox. Further ad hominem attacks on anyone, including the Commander in Chief, will be deleted without comment. There are other sites where this is welcomed. Marine Corps Moms is not one of them.
Posted by: Deb Conrad at October 7, 2004 02:07 PM
One for you, Deb! You don't need such ignorance on you web site. I thought you handled the situation with class. Why should I be surprised?!
Best of wishes to you and all of the Marine Corps Moms and your sons and daughters fighting bravely for our country.
Ellen
A Proud Younger Sister of 2 Ex-Military Men (Marine and Air Force)
Posted by: Ellen at November 1, 2004 04:11 PM