A welcoming present for Petraeus and Crocker from Charlie Gibson and the boys, seizing on CNN’s dopey Iraqi focus-group idea and taking it to its logical conclusion. No grand conclusions about which way the force is leaning are drawn, but the implication is clear enough from the soundbites ABC chose to include (the lone McCain supporter has the silliest justification of the bunch). How representative is the sample? I can’t find any recent polls of military sentiment on the election but an LA Times poll of military families last year found plenty of disgruntlement towards Bush. Doubtless there’s been some erosion of Republican support as the war’s dragged on, even within a profession that’s always skewed a bit right, but to the extent suggested here? With Republicans generally overwhelmingly predisposed to staying in Iraq? Even the left acknowledges that most troops are gung ho to win the war, and that was before 10 months of security gains. Maverick’s surely doing better than this.

Exit question: How angry do you suppose Jon Soltz will be when he sees these men and women in uniform singing Hillary’s and Obama’s praises? Click the image to watch.