Both President Obama and Mitt Romney were candidates in 2008. At this point, anything that happened to either candidate before that date is largely not going to resonate with voters.

Millions of Americans pay virtually no attention to the primaries, so they're just learning about him now.

R(money) has to be put under a microscope. He is significantly older than President Obama, and should be questioned about Vietnam, ESPECIALLY since he wanted other people to go there, but he was a coward.

...which happened 40 years ago, I invite you to consider Bill Clinton.

one was protesting against the war and the other was promoting it. One is a hypocrite and the other is not.

He didn't protests in favor of the draft and then skip country when that draft happened.

Clinton's opinion was also very unpopular among many veterans.

save France from Catholicism. It's only incidental that he kept his precious skin away from bullets.

in a few short words. Bravo! Wish I could rec your post.

wonder why any vet would support Mr Romney.

I don't care about his sons, they are adults, he is not responsible for them joining the army or not. We act like politicians can sign their kids up. Screw Romney's kids. And I won't fault anyone for not wanting to die in Vietnam, defending your own life doesn't make anyone a coward, but fuck him for being for the war at the same time, he's a hypocrite that's the point.

I''m thinking about my kids (I don't have any or know if I want any but if I did) living in an environmental wasteland watching US troops kill brown people in our name under orders from a plutocratic GOP President. That's what I'll be thinking about in Nov as I cast my ballot against the corporate fuck party.

white trash doing the fighting instead of him. What a total prick.

It was because he was considered a missionary. Missionaries and clergy, as well as divinity students, got automatic deferments. And there were plenty of people who used student deferments as well. It is not correct to label them cowards. Some had student deferments because they wanted to get an education and guess what, you couldn't serve in Vietnam and get an education at the same time. Besides, the student deferment was only good so long as one was a full time student. It did not get you out of the draft permanently. Yes, for many the draft ended before their student deferment did, but there was no guarantee of that going in. The system was unfair but it was not incumbent on individuals to sacrifice their education and put themselves in harm's way just because the system was unfair. I do fault Romney for not recognize the injustice of sending so many young men to Vietnam to fight in war which could not be won and was not in our national interest. But there are plenty of reasons to be against Romney and his lack of service during Vietnam is not one of them.

stopping him, if he "longed" to be there. Even the Mormon Church decided that too many "missionaries" were taking the religious exemption to get out of service. And no one forced him to take the educational deferments either. He could always have finished his studies after his military service.

I really don't. I know it makes great political hay but what we have to remember is that these were 18 and 19 and 20 year olds and there was an unpopular war going on. There was no glory in going into the military. There was little sense of fighting for your country. Almost no one saw the war as winnable. I frankly do not believe Mitt when he says he "longed" to be in Vietnam. No one longed to be in Vietnam. Some may have gone out of a sense of duty, I will grant you that, but no one longed to be there. And to tell a prospective college student that they can finish their studies later - I was there and believe me, they would have laughed in your face. Hardly any one was passing on college to submit to the draft. It just didn't happen very often. The kids who didn't go to college were the kids who were told college wasn't for them. In the 60s there was a very strict tracking system in high schools - you were either on the academic or college prep track or you weren't. You made the choice in 8th grade and it was very difficult to get into college if you were not on the academic track.

in support of the war -- which I think shows a real lack of judgment. I blame no one who sought to avoid service in that needless war; except when they lie about it later, as Romney is now, pretending that he "longed" to serve.

Romney interrupted his college education for two full years to serve as a Missionary to France -- he could just as easily have interrupted his education to go to Vietnam instead, and he could have done so with the full support of the Mormon Church.

It makes total sense.

He recently said that Russia was our biggest foreign threat.

Mitt is living 30 years behind the rest of us. So today, he's worried about the Ruskies, and back in the late 60s, early 70s, he was ready to fight the Germans, in France.