Military who served in Iraq less supportive of Bush

The National Annenberg Election Survey today released the results of their poll of military men and women and their families. According to the NAES news release, "The survey did not ask the voting preference of the respondents because a 1948 statute prohibits polling members of the armed services about whom they intend to vote for." However, they were able to ask a variety of other questions to assess opinions of Bush and Kerry.

As expected, there are lots of positive indicators for Bush among this population. However, this scientific poll shows weaker (but still high) support for Bush among military voters than the unscientific Military Times voter survey. This disparity clearly supports my criticism of the Military Times' methodology, which you can read more about in an op-ed to be published in Military Times newspapers (Army Times, Air Force Times, etc.) on Monday.

There are several points of interest in the NAES poll, which I'll have more to say about in the coming days. For now, here's one quick observation:

Support for Bush ("handling of his job", "favorable", "unfavorable") and the belief that it was worth going to war in Iraq are markedly lower among military people who served in Iraq than the general military population. Conversely, Kerry's "favorable" is highest and is "unfavorable" is lowest among military people who served in Iraq than the general military population.