Several recent foreign policy and national security gaffes may have hurt President Obama with a very important demographic; veterans.

Politico:

The Obama campaign had been hoping that veterans and their families - especially among the post-Sept. 11 generation that served in Iraq and Afghanistan - would be part of their path to victory: They're a high turn-out demographic and concentrated in battleground states, with nearly 1 million each in North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, and 1.6 million in Florida.

But recent polls make clear that the president's campaign is losing the battle. Even as Obama leads in Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Virginia, Mitt Romney is up by double digits among veterans in those states. Nationwide, he's got a commanding 20-percentage-point lead over Obama and has even overtaken the president with younger veterans.

 

"It's no contest," said Maurice Tamman, a Reuters data news editor who has polled on veterans and the presidential campaign.

Obama's campaign has been trying to improve on a historical Democratic disadvantage on national security and among veterans by touting the killing of Osama bin Laden, ending Iraq combat operations and winding down the war in Afghanistan. They've also been talking up the administration's attention to veterans' benefits and efforts spearheaded by first lady Michelle Obama, hoping to appeal not just to the troops but to the spouses and other military family members who have coped with long separations and multiple deployments.

Instead, even as Obama has been gaining in the overall polls, several NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls conducted from Sept. 9-11 had Romney well ahead of Obama among veterans in Florida, Ohio and Virginia. And in Colorado, a poll released Sept. 16 by SurveyUSA and the Denver Post found both veterans and military families supporting Romney over Obama 53 percent to 39 percent in a survey that included third-party candidates.

It was shallow and stupid of the Obama campaign to think that vets would support him solely because he ended the war in Iraq - or killed bin Laden. Like other Americans veterans base their voting preference on a wide vareity of issues but are also more savvy on national security issues then the average voter.

Veterans can see as well as anybody where Obama's policies have brought us. Therefore, it's not surprising that Romney is far ahead among vets given the situation in the middle east and elsewhere.