Politics captures troops’ attention

[unhappycamper]

Newly arriving sailors to the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk watch the New Hampshire primary returns on Wednesday.


Politics captures troops’ attention
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, January 11, 2008

U.S. servicemembers and civilians in the Pacific didn’t shy from talking politics Wednesday as primary results in Iowa and Wyoming last week and New Hampshire this week indicated the 2008 race for president still has no clear favorite.

Of more than two dozen people interviewed in mainland Japan, on Okinawa and in South Korea, many cited the war in Iraq as the most important issue to them this election year.

Even more said they were ready for a “fresh face,” favoring a candidate with the ability to bring about change over one with a deep political resume.

A few admitted they didn’t care. As one airman at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, put it: “I am not very political.”

But many said that for the first time in a long time, they were paying attention to the primary elections, intrigued by the possibility of having the first female president in Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., or the first racial minority president in Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill..


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51535