Conventional wisdom for the last couple of decades has been that veterans and active duty personal vote Republican. And as a trend that may not necessarily have changed. But, the choice between Bush and Kerry seems to increasingly be challenging the conventional wisdom, at least with respect to this election.

Kerry is a decorated veteran who twice volunteered for the Vietnam War. Meanwhile unanswered questions linger over whether Bush fulfilled his duty to the National Guard during his term of service here in America. Even though records thought to have been destroyed have surfaced, they don't provide answers.

Fresh from receiving the endorsement of 12 retired Generals and Admirals, including two former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Starr and a former Director of the CIA, Kerry is making headway in the battle for the military vote. Many lower ranked officers like our friend Jon Zall Colonel, U.S. Air Force (retired)of Voice of a Veteran (also linked from our blog roll) support Kerry over Bush too. And over 500 of the delegates at the Democratic Convention were veterans.

A CBS News poll released a month before the Democratic Convention showed that Bush was winning the veteran vote by a 52 - 37% margin. A little over a month later a new CBS poll showed that Bush had dropped from 52% to 47% while Kerry had improved from 37% to 41% among veterans - a mere 6 point gap, with Bush dropping several points below 50%.

These seem to be ominous trends for this "War" President. With new websites by veterans supplimenting the many existing veterans sites that oppose President Bush, it increasingly seems that the veteran vote might turn into a liability for Bush come November. Perhaps knowing who served and who didn't is playing a larger and larger role in making up veteran's minds about whom to vote for this November.