The new John McCain ad running in South Carolina, a veteran-rich state. Mark Hemingway wonders if the Vietnam vets will come out in support of Senator McCain, the way they did to stop John Kerry:
In fact, McCain is probably the only candidate that talks about veterans’ issues in every stump speech. And why shouldn’t he? If one can judge by his appearances on the campaign trail, veterans are a significant base of support for McCain. It’s a reasonable conjecture that McCain’s victory in New Hampshire is in no small way attributable to his appeal to veterans. Veterans comprise over 15 percent of the voting age population in the Granite State, one of the highest percentages of any state in the nation. (A search for exit-polling data on veterans’ voting habits in this past New Hampshire primary and the last few elections has proved maddeningly elusive.)
But unlike the endless navel-gazing over female, minority, or evangelical voters, very little thought is given to veterans as a voting bloc.
