How Obama Is Wooing the Military

TIME: How Obama Is Wooing the Military
By Mark Thompson / Washington

Amid all the pomp and solemnity surrounding his arrival in Washington, Barack Obama found time to perform a couple of quiet salutes to an important constituency. On Sunday morning, he and Vice President–elect Joe Biden placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. On Monday morning, the President-elect slipped over to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for an unannounced visit with troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. Much of the country may have missed those brief visits, but the men and women of the U.S. military didn't.

The occasions themselves were muted. Obama said nothing publicly at Arlington, and cameras were barred during his Walter Reed visit. But the symbolism is more important than anything Obama could have said. He's gone out of his way to win the hearts and minds — if not the votes — of those wearing the uniforms of the nation's armed services.

Military officers — especially those who tend to talk privately to reporters, knowing that their views will seep into news coverage — say Obama wins points for the national-security team he has tapped. His National Security Adviser will be retired Marine General James Jones, who thereby becomes the new President's closest foreign policy aide. Jones is held in high regard inside the Pentagon for his stewardship of the corps as its commandant and for his final uniformed posting as NATO's military chief. Obama's top intelligence pick is retired Navy Admiral Dennis Blair, widely regarded as whip-smart. He'll serve as Director of National Intelligence, overseeing the nation's sprawling spy bureaucracy. Obama is also keeping on Bush's Defense Secretary, Robert Gates. Even his pick for Secretary of State — former First Lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton — has won both public and private plaudits from the military following her astute work on the Armed Services Committee since 2003. (See who's who in Obama's White House.)

The incoming First Lady, Michelle Obama, is also doing her part in wooing the armed forces. She has already made clear that she wants to adopt military families as her special concern. Perhaps that's why the so-called Kids' Inaugural on Monday night, featuring the Jonas Brothers, is being billed as a concert to honor military families. One of the 10 official balls the new President will attend on Tuesday night is the Commander in Chief's Ball (first held by George W. Bush); the largely enlisted crowd will get to attend free of charge in the National Building Museum in downtown D.C. As anyone who has ever served in uniform knows, that's a surefire way to win the grunts' support. (See pictures of the fashion of Michelle Obama.)

Earning the military's trust is an obligation that comes when assuming command in the middle of two wars (a nonscientific poll before the election by the independent Army Times newspaper showed GOP nominee John McCain getting three military votes for every one for Obama). But it's also an acknowledgment that while the military's enthusiasm for a new President won't win either wars or votes, a rocky relationship between the President and the military forces under his command can undermine his presidency....

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(A)s far as the courtship is going, Obama is getting a solid salute back from the rank and file.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1872620,00.html?cnn=yes

neglected to mention campaign contributions from servicemembers (like myself) ran heavily to obama. conveenient oversight, time!