McCain's Pro-Vet Image Clashes With Record

[Hissyspit]

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/6199/mccains-pro-vet-image-clashes-with-record

McCain’s Pro-Vet Image Clashes With Record
McCain Garners More Support From Veterans Than Obama
By JOHN DOUGHERTY 9/17/08 4:43 PM

PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, continues to hold a substantial lead over his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, among military veterans — despite the fact that Obama has consistently voted for higher increases in veterans’ health-care spending and advocated sweeping reforms at the Depart. of Veteran Affairs.
The most recent Gallup poll of registered voters, conducted in mid-August shortly before the Republican National Convention, showed that among those who had served in the military, 56 percent backed McCain, compared to 34 percent for Obama. Among all registered voters, Obama led McCain 46 percent to 43 percent.

The poll found that veterans favored McCain not because he is considered a war hero after his almost six years as a POW in North Vietnam. Rather, Gallup emphasized that because most veterans tend to be Republican–47 percent said they were Republican or leaned toward being so– they were simply backing their party’s presidential nominee.

Obama has certainly worked hard for veterans issues. As a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, the Illinois senator has pushed to end benefit disparities between veterans with combat and noncombat experience; get homeless vets off the streets; improve their mental health-care benefits; increase Depart. of Veteran Affairs funding and overhaul the administration of all vet benefits.
But Obama never served in the military. For some veterans, like many who attended the American Legion’s annual convention last month in Phoenix, that is what counts, not their allegiance to the GOP.
One was Vietnam veteran Bernard Randall, 63. He told me that he supports McCain because “he’s a veteran” with “more experience than Obama.” Randall, an Apache who served in the Marines in 1967-68, said health care is his top issue, and that McCain is more likely to do something about it. Randall’s views were echoed by a dozen other conventioneers, even after they watched a video of Obama addressing the gathering.
But is Randall’s and the other vets’ faith in McCain justified?

Not according to several veterans’ organizations that have given McCain low marks for his overall voting record on vet issues.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a non-partisan advocacy group, gave McCain a “D” in 2006, while Obama earned a “B+.” The Vietnam Veterans of America reported that on 31 “key votes” between 2001 and 2008 on issues including veterans’ health-care funding and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, McCain opposed its positions 15 times, while supporting it eight times. In contrast, Obama, since elected to the Senate in 2004, backed the group’s stands 12 out of 13 times. The Disabled Veterans of America said McCain supported its positions 20 percent of the time in 2006, compared to Obama’s 80 percent.

There are several examples of the conflicting McCain and Obama votes, including McCain’s opposition to five bills that would increase funding for veteran healthcare programs and related facilities. A full list of those bills is available here.

Before Obama came to the Senate, McCain also cast votes against obtaining better equipment for troops. In 2003, for example, he voted to table an amendment that called for an additional $322 million for safety equipment for military forces in Iraq. The measure would have reduced reconstruction funds for Iraq by the same amount. In April 2003, he voted to table an amendment, that passed 52-47, to provide more than $1 billion in equipment for the National Guard and reserves to reduce a shortage of helmets, bullet-proof armor and other gear.

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[opihimoimoi]

1. You tell um Hissy....K&R

[dmosh42]

2. Good post!...The Dems really drop the ball on this.

'Any' Democrat in Congress has a better record for voting in favor of veteran's benefits than 'any' Republican. Yet, I have never heard Obama, or other Democratic candidates mention this.