Bush Loses Ground With Military Families

Democrats No Longer Seen as the Anti-Soldier Party

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll has measured a sea-change in the opinions of our military and military families.

Nearly six out of every 10 military families disapprove of Bush's job performance and the way he has run the war, rating him only slightly better than the general population does.

The son of poll respondent Mary Meneely, 58, is an Air Force reservist, and served one tour in Afghanistan. Meneely commented that Bush,

...went into Iraq without justification, without a plan; he just decided to go in there and win, and he had no idea what was going to happen. There have been terrible deaths on our side, and it's even worse for the Iraqi population. It's another Vietnam.

Previous surveys had demonstrated an erosion of support for Bush and the war among military personnel, including a 2005 poll by Military Times of their active-duty readers.

Now the disapproval of Bush appears to have transferred to his party. Republican leanings of military families that began with the Vietnam War -- when Democratic protests seemed to be aimed at the troops as much as the fighting -- have shifted, the poll results show.David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland, concludes,

You generally expect to see support for the president as commander in chief and for the war, but this is a different kind of war than those we've fought in the past, particularly for families.

That's because it's not war, Davey, but an occupation. An illegitimate, un-welcomed, and unwanted occupation.

This is Praise-a-Republican-Friday

And, as promised, this space is reserved for any readers and lurkers so disposed to do so.

Personally, however, at this early hour, I cannot summon the effort to do so. At the end of the day, I'll paste up something from repeaters such as Chuck Hagel or Ron Paul, etc., just to serve as a space-holder.

In the meantime, since some of my best friends are Republicans, maybe I'll take one to lunch.