Better than yellow!

Photo by jasoneppink

So, I assume that by now most of you are aware that John McCain is a war hero and member of the Support-Our-Troops party.  And troops traditionally skew conservative, so you’d figure that he’d totally mop the floor with Obama when it comes to donations from them, right?  Um, not so much…

[A] new analysis by Open Secrets finds that the U.S. military is increasingly rejecting McCain as its spokesman. Obama has received nearly six times as much money from soldiers deployed overseas [in 2008]. Even anti-war libertarian Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who has suspended his campaign, has received more than four times as much as McCain.

The numbers: Obama $60,642. Paul $45,512. McCain… $10,665.  Where’s the love?

The gap is a lot closer ($335K-$280K) when you factor in the entire military, although Obama is still ahead.  I guess a McCain presidency sounds a lot more appealing when you’re not actually getting shot at.

Interestingly, the troops are giving 59% of their congressional campaign donations to Republicans, so they still look pretty conservative.  They just don’t like McCain.  Even the Navy, his own branch, doesn’t like him – the only branch McCain "won" was the Marines.

Could it be that the troops don’t want to stay in Iraq for the next 100 years or more?  Or that they don’t feel comfortable with a Commander-In-Chief who doesn’t know the difference between Sunni and Shia?  Perhaps they don’t appreciate his opposition to Webb’s amendment to give them longer rotations home, or to Webb’s update to the GI Bill?

Or maybe they just think he’s a cranky old asshole who doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.

(Thanks to Blue Texan for the title)