by TChris

In time of war, the President might expect to count military families in his base of support. As the war in Iraq continues to produce senseless deaths, with rumblings that more troops are needed and with no clear plan to withdraw, President Bush's support among military families is starting to erode. Families are questioning why the President is placing their spouses and children in harm's way.

[I]t was clear at Fort Campbell, based on more than three dozen interviews here this week, that the Republican Party will have to work harder this year to keep the votes of military families, a group who at other times could be counted as Republican stalwarts.

Polls of the military are few and tend to be unreliable since pollsters have only limited access to military bases, and many military personnel are scattered overseas. A recent Washington Post/CBS Poll found that military personnel were still 2-to-1 Republican, but a CBS News survey found that 40 to 48 percent of people from "military families" would vote for Senator John Kerry, said Peter Feaver, a professor of political science at Duke University who studies military-civilian relations.

As military families become less convinced that the President's war policy serves the nation's interests, "the large number of military personnel in swing states like West Virginia, Florida and New Mexico means that small shifts in military voting could prove decisive in the national election."