U.S. Troops Support Bush 4 to 1 over Kerry

Unscientific poll by Army Times cited

The USA Today is reporting that American soldiers support Bush over Kerry by margin of 4 to 1. USA Today was very quick to reiterate that the poll was conducted by the Army Times (owned by USA Today publisher Gannett), but that the poll’s methodology was suspect as well:

Army Times Publishing sent e-mails to more than 31,000 subscribers and received 4,165 responses on a secure Web site. The publisher cautioned that the results are not a scientific poll. Its readers are older, higher in rank and more career-oriented than the military as a whole.

You have to hand it to a newspaper when they reveal their own methodology as suspect in a poll. All this having been said, the poll does indeed reflect the sentiment in the military regarding Senator Kerry and his liberal anti-war past.

“You can’t dismiss” the results, said Peter Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who for years has studied the political leanings of the U.S. military. Feaver said it’s unlikely that Bush will receive 70% of votes cast by military personnel. But the results suggest it will be difficult for Kerry to make substantial gains among a group that has strongly supported Republican presidential candidates in the post-Vietnam era.

Even if the margin of error were substantial, these numbers are indeed hard to ignore.