The military is one of the most consistently respected institutions of the United States, and in this election season, you can't beat having strong military ties when running for commander in chief.
Sen. John McCain is the best example of America's respect for those who have worn the uniform. It's a difficult year for Republicans, but the fact that voters even give McCain the time of the day is due to the many days McCain spent in a North Vietnamese prison as a POW.
Presidential politics were not always favorable toward Vietnam veterans. Bill Clinton ran as a renegade promoting the fact that he participated in anti-Vietnam War rallies and suggested he had successfully dodged the draft. That would be unthinkable today.
Clinton's running mate, the high priest of global warming, Al Gore, deployed with the 20th Engineer Brigade and was a war correspondent out of Bien Hoa, Vietnam. If Gore had promoted his military service over his expertise in technology, he would have become the president of the United States in the exceptionally tight 2000 presidential race. Instead, Gore lost by a couple of hundred votes and got a reputation for denying overseas military ballots.
A 2008 Gallup poll confirmed what most people know: 62 percent consider military service to be very "patriotic," coming in second only to voting.
The high esteem Americans have for military service is remarkable considering all the stigma against joining the military. Colleges routinely kick officer-training programs off campus. If you read the press and watch the movies, people who serve in the military are societal refuse prone to suicide, crime and manipulated into the armed service by a lying recruiter and as a last alternative to going to jail. Supposedly, those who join do it for the college money, because they can't get into college or to get out of the trailer/ghetto/farm.
In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the No. 1 question I asked the troops, especially in the lower ranks, was "Why did you join during a time of war?" The No. 1 response was because they "wanted to do something for the country."
Americans respect the institution of the military and don't take kindly to questionable service.
Bush's Vietnam record, or lack thereof, hurt his candidacy – the allegation was that he was willing to send other people off to war, but would not go himself when presented with a similar opportunity.
John Kerry did not become the the Democratic candidate for the American presidency because of his dazzling personality or his lovely wife. Kerry's crooked salute, when he reported for duty at the 2004 Democratic Convention, was supposed to assure voters that the junior senator from Massachusetts would make a capable commander in chief.
In 2004, bloody fighting in Fallujah, a growing insurgency and an increasing casualty count made Americans nervous. For the 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry was marketed as a sage soldier, a reluctant warrior, a type of military messiah, until his former comrades in arms torpedoed his presidential aspirations.
Kerry snapped the band of brothers when, under oath, he accused his fellow sailors of war crimes without the courtesy of providing evidence. Most veterans will give a fellow vet the benefit of the doubt, but Kerry didn't pass the sniff test, and questions about his military service "swiftboated" his campaign.
Two years later, it was Kerry's remarks on soldiers being "stuck in Iraq" that dashed any hope the senator could have possibly had of occupying the White House.
Even wanting to serve in the military may be of political advantage. Sen. Barack Obama recently confessed that he had considered serving.
"I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honorable option." Obama said he did not enlist because Vietnam was over and he would, I assume, not have the chance to fight. This comment will eventually hurt Obama if it is not sincere.
Veterans have a finely tuned BS meter that goes off whenever they hear a politician pander to them, just ask Hillary Clinton who claimed she wanted to become a Marine sometime in mid '70s.
Having military in the family never hurts a politician, either.
Sarah Palin's oldest son is in the Alaska National Guard and will serve in a Stryker brigade. Joseph Biden's son is a judge advocate general (JAG officer) and is also deploying to Iraq. Two of McCain's sons served in the Navy, while McCain's youngest son, James, enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 17 and served in Anbar, Iraq, when that province was anything but peaceful.
These guys are all assets to their respective political parents and rightfully so. The perception of the military has changed, as has the image of veterans.
Despite his long ordeal, McCain is admired rather than pitied. In what may be one of the maverick's greatest services, John McCain is restoring public honor to those who served in Vietnam. Honor is a benefit every veteran desires but none can demand.
The precedent has been set. Military service is no longer resumé padding. Future presidential candidates will have to have positive military ties after several elections of optional military support.