Semper La-De-Dah

Politico HERE points out the the 2012 election might be absent a candidate with any military experience at all:

Of the 16 top GOP presidential prospects for 2012, only Rep. Ron Paul and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have ever served in the Armed Forces. Since President Barack Obama also never served in the military, the odds are that in two years, Americans are likely to cast their votes in the first presidential race in nearly 70 years where neither major party nominee has ever worn the nation's uniform.

The last time that happened was 1944, when New York Republican Gov. Thomas Dewey lost to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had been crippled by polio. 

But it we shouldn't really be surprised by this at all, since two years ago I had brilliantly pointed out that while we spend a lot of time during presidential campaigns braying about the candidates' military service, when it comes to actually voting Americans don't really give a shit, and in fact the OPPOSITE has been the case for the last 50 years:

Dubya avoided the war by joining the Guard. Not only avoided the war, but apparently nobody has any idea where the hell he even was for a few months. And yet he beat TWO Vietnam war veterans – one a sitting vice president who had served on the Armed Services Committees, and the other a highly decorated war hero himself.

Clinton, same thing. Served ice cream sandwiches in the ROTC, yet beat out two different men who fought in WWII. One a sitting president whose fighter plane had been shot down, the other a vet who lost the use of his right hand in combat. Clinton took a lot of shit for avoiding Vietnam, but in the end nobody really cared.

Bush Sr, as I said was a heroic pilot…who would lose a second term to the draft-dodging Clinton. And to be honest, I don’t really remember his military service coming up a lot during his first race. Who’d he beat in 1988? A guy who to this day is still panned for trying to look tough in an Army tank.

Reagan, I have no idea if he even served. Don’t recall it coming up (just looked it up - turns out he was in "the 1st Motion Picture Unit" during WWII. I did not make that up, I swear.) Regardless, Reagan was a lot more famous for playing dress-up in the movies, and who’d he beat? Jimmy Carter, Navy Korean war vet.

You see my point…a surprising thing to realize, after I had given it ten seconds thought. Hell, the last real war hero we elected was John F. Kennedy, whom a lot of people prolly saw as much as a baby-faced elitist rich daddy's boy as a war hero...and he beat a guy who had fought in the South Pacific during WWII and then was Dwight Eisenhower's understudy for eight years. In 1960. Before Barack Obama was even born.

What WILL be a surprise will be watching the candidates come up with new ways to show you that they really, REALLY love the military! The over-emoting will be Oscar-worthy, for sure.