Nice try, Reuters

| May 13, 2012

Old Trooper sent us a link to a Reuters article entitled “Weary warriors favor Obama” which tells the story of some guy, who I can’t find in AKO, who was supposed to have retired last year after thirty years in the Army. A guy who hangs out at gun shows and “drools” over the weapons there, but he’s voting for Obama because he “plans to vote for the candidate least likely to wage “knee-jerk reaction wars.””

If the election were held today, Obama would win the veteran vote by as much as seven points over Romney, higher than his margin in the general population.

Yeah, I’m sure, because, we all look forward to a weakened and more expensive health care system and and a weakened national security, so we can keep buying food stamps and big screen TVs for people who’ve never had a job.

And how many of you guys in the 82d have a 82nd Airborne Division yearbook;

In his study, below a movie poster of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” McDowell, the Ron Paul supporter [who is now intending to vote for Obama], flipped through pages of an 82nd Airborne Division yearbook, lingering on photographs of dead comrades. He recalled their ages, how many children they had, and how they died.

And this supposed 20-year Air Force veteran who voted for Santorum in the SC primary is dismissed in the article;

The Graftons’ votes, however, like many veterans’, can’t be taken as evidence of a hard-line military stance. Registered Republicans, they cast their ballots for Obama in 2008 because he promised to bring the troops home from Iraq.

The end of our participation in Iraq was determined long before Obama took office, so of course, he could promise to bring the troops home. But, in reality, the article only names one veteran (about whom I have doubts as to his service), Mack McDowell, who says he’s voting for Obama as evidence of massive support for Obama. I checked every McDowell in AKO (because I understand Mack might be a nickname) and unless he’s a woman or was in the National Guard, there are no Army Master Sergeants by that name.

But, like Old Trooper, I wonder how Reuters could publish this POS with a straight face.

Category: Media, Military issues

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WOTN

In their minds, it’s the results that matter, not the means.

And *somebody* has to convince civilians that the Troops are “okay” with all the things this Administration has done TO the Troops.

NHSparky

I read this earlier this morning and damn near threw my phone across the parking lot to get the bullshit as far away from me as I could. I was going to post this after work tonight if you hadn’t, Jonn. Every paragraph was loaded with pantload after steaming pile, yet I read it to the end to see how many times ol’ Margot could blame Bush.

CNN exit polling had over 90 percent of registered Republicans voting for McCain in 2008, so you can imagine the amount of cherry picking she needed to do for this article. Mack votes for Paul and then will vote for Obama? Color me shocked. Really. Now you Paulians are beginning to see why most people think ya’ll are nuttier than squorrel shit. And I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that someone who voted for the most socially conservative GOP candidate in nearly a generation isn’t gonna rush out and pull the lever for Obumbles.

YMMV.

Biermann

Read this crap this morning. Lots of redflags popped up on these “Weary warriors”. Go get em Jonn!

Biermann

Quick google search on Mack returns several hits.

http://www.midlandsbiz.com/articles/8768/

SJ

Does this mean that the Dims will actually count the absentee ballots from Afghan this time?

NHSparky

Also, I’d love to see the internals of any poll that has Obama up by seven points when polls have Romney up by seven points.

NHSparky

SJ…don’t hold your breath.

DaveO

Well that’s it. MasterBlaster Mack has spoken and all must bow unto his choice.

May be that MasterBlaster Mack is merely a construct for what the reporter’s editors have been told to produce. Like the alleged outpouring of support for Ron Paul by veterans, this is a very common tactic. It is, as Progressive media types love to point out, “Fake but accurate.”

DaveO

NHSparkey – you mean Sarah Palin, right? Senator McCain isn’t even a RINO, he’s a RIMO: Republican in Money Only.

OldSoldier54

What liars. How do these people sleep at night?

melony

i saw it as well. kinda grimaced when i read it..Thanks for shedding light to it….now I can go back to my daily scheduled sunday ..’giggle’

Just Plain Jason

He is actually a composite, you know how they like composites…

Sean

Like Reuters hasnt been caught lying numerous times?
Doctoring pictures of the Lebanon War in 06, the famous Iraqi Woman holding the Bullets that hit her house…… cropping knives out of the hands of the flottila members who atacked the IDF commandos in that raid.

Al T.

Smells like a rat. The link in post #4 is interesting. Wonder if the SGM is real?

thebesig

“Disaffection with the politics of shock and awe runs deep among men and women who have served in the military during the past decade of conflict. Only 32 percent think the war in Iraq ended successfully, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. And far more of them would pull out of Afghanistan than continue military operations there.” — Reuters

OK, maybe you guys would have better luck than what I’ve had. Here’s a link to the list of polls that Ipsos has done for Reuters:

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/searchresults.aspx?cat=37

So far, there are two polls on Afghanistan, and they both surveyed Americans across the country… they’re not veteran specific.

Here’s something else. In Jonn Lilyea’s link, the guy is referenced as a “Master Sergeant.” In Biermann’s link, he’s listed as a Sergeant Major. Both articles claimed that he retired.

I also did the AKO search for a MSG or SGM McDowell that’d fit the description for articles. No luck. I narrowed the search to Columbia, SC. No MSG or SGM in in the results.

Also, some key phrases that hint at a possible phoney: drools at weapons at gun shows, fondness for war “mementos,” lingering at photos of dead comrades. For the later, he probably recalled data he read from newspapers.

JM Hanes

I was struck by the odd phrasing of “by as much as” 7%, and by the fact that Reuters doesn’t actually source that number to their own, or any other, specific poll. I suspect it’s a guestimated “composite” from a collection of different polls, quite possibly relying on the issues based assumptions of the author, rather than a direct match-up between Obama and Romney.

I’m not sure how you even pull a 7% advantage out of the stats that were explicitly cited from Reuters/Ipsos polling (which may not come from a single — or recent — survey either):

A majority no longer oppose repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t tell — but apparently don’t see social issues as a factor in their 2012 decisions.

“Only 32%” think the Iraq War ended successfully. Even if all 32% blame Bush, not Obama, for that, it leaves some 68% thinking otherwise.

60% think the country is going off the rails, which doesn’t sound like an endorsement of the current Prez, especially when his job approval comes in at 27%, with disapproval running 10 points higher.

If “most veterans support some form of military action to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” I find it hard to believe they think Obama is their guy. And maybe it’s just me, but I’d certainly put Libya in the “knee-jerk reaction wars” column, absent a category for PR image wars.

Even McDowell is only saying he’ll vote for Obama (oops, make that “the Democrat”), “if no one else can get their act together.” Obama almost looks like the last choice on McDowell’s list — especially when he was talking about his disappointment in the Republican primary free for all. I’m left wondering exactly how long ago this interview took place. Romney’s done quite a bit of pulling things together since he finally took an insurmountable lead….

Of course, I could be wrong, but none of the above says Obama has the vet vote in his pocket to me — even if I were willing to believe he might, which I must admit I’m not.

Yat Yas 1833

What’s all the hubbub about? Doesn’t anyone here speak “lib speak”? Reuters is “lib speak” for “liars”!?

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[…] 14th, 2012 The Washington Post‘s Amy Gardner reports that which we already know from reading the Reuters piece yesterday, that the Obama campaign is pressing veterans for their votes. “There’s a different […]

Doc Bailey

well when Noor Eldien died somehow Reuters fucking knew about it before we ever got back to the FOB to examine the evidence. My guess, they put him up to it. So if you ask me someone ought to actually investigate Reuters. Hey would that be “Reportergate?”