Deployed Troops Donating 6:1 to Obama
This is a shocking figure. While figures among military personnel overall are more evenly spread, donations from troops stationed overseas at the time of their donation have given $60,642 to Barack Obama’s campaign, compared to $10,665 for McCain.
From OpenSecrets.org:
During World War II, soldiers crouching in foxholes penned letters assuring their sweethearts that they’d be home soon. Now, between firefights in the Iraqi desert, some infantrymen have been sending a different kind of mail stateside: two or three hundred dollars — or whatever they can spare — towards a presidential election that could very well determine just how soon they come home.
According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.
Despite McCain’s status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall — whether stationed overseas or at home — are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.
Since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain has tried to pull financial support away from our troops currently serving by opposing to the 21st Century GI Bill, suggesting privatization of the VA, and proposing that the VA only cover combat injuries. Apparently our deployed forces are returning the favor.
I am not surprised in the least that such a large majority of the military stationed overseas are donating to the Obama campaign. They are in an excellent position to know what the foreign policy stakes in this election are. My time in the military was not spent overseas and it was not in time of war but I’m willing to bet the farm that even I understand foreign policy better than does John McCain. Obama 08!