The AWOL story may not matter much to the public at large--

[Jackpine Radical]

especially since many of them may not really appreciate the significance of shirking duty during wartime & having your misbehavior "sugarcoated." But one group that is really paying attention is the active-duty military, as witness the prominent placement of the AP story in pubs like the sister-publications Army Times & AF Times.

IMHO, the real potential for this story is in terms of its power to turn off the military vote, which went overwhelmingly to Bush last time. This story compounds a problem created by the Smearboat buzz, which I imagine also pissed off a lot of military people.

Remember-Rasmussen, Gallup & Zogby aren't out there polling the military every day, so the Pubbies may not even realize what they're doing to one of their core constituencies.

[Carolinian]

1. Bull. You think it doesn't matter to those young men and

women serving our country in Iraq? Bullshit.

[mac56]

2. I think he's saying it DOES matter to the military.

nm

[Jackpine Radical]

3. No, I think it DOES matter to them. That's my point.

Who do you think I meant by "active-duty military?"

[CarolynEC]

5. I think the poster's point was that it DOES matter to military members

I'd go further and argue that it matters to civilian voters as well. As someone else noted in another thread, the idea of Bush getting "special treatment" (say it again with me!) could really puncture his phony regular-guy charade.

Whether it will actually have that effect... that's up to our side now, and how skillfuly we manage the story.

[maine_raptor]

4. I'm sure this has some effect, Jackpine, but

His AWOLness is the C-in-C, loyalty to the chain might offset some of that anger. Don't know, but it'll be interesting analyzing the vote totals after Nov 2.

[realFedUp]

6. Link to Army Times AWOL story

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-344686.php

Be the first to reply to that story on the website....
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