New Poll Shows President Obama is Not Leaving Office as a Favorite of Our Military

President Barack Obama is/was not a friend of the military.

At least, they didn’t think so. Recent polling shows that most of America’s troops had a less than favorable opinion of the way Obama conducted himself as Commander-in-Chief.

A Military Times/Institute for Veterans and Military Families Poll showed 51.5 percent of military members polled had either a very unfavorable or somewhat unfavorable view of Obama’s time in office. About 36 percent saw his time in office was either very favorable or somewhat favorable.

To contrast, back in 2014, 65 percent of post-9/11 veterans had a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush, labeling him a good Commander-in-Chief, as opposed to about 42 percent at that time for President Obama.

You could possibly write that off to a meme come to life – “Miss me, yet?” – but the facts are more grounded. President Bush was more devoted to our troops.

Breaking the current polling down to issues, Obama’s biggest hit came from his decision to cut the size of our military. Of those polled, 71 percent said more personnel were needed in our military, not less.

However, 69 percent agreed with his strategy of strengthening U.S. security through building foreign alliances, 60 percent agreed with his use of drones to minimize danger to troops, and 64 percent agreed with his strategy of using special forces for targeted strikes.

Enlisted personnel were the most likely to have an unfavorable view of Obama, as 52.1 percent said they didn’t approve of his time in office. The officer class was more evenly split, as 48 percent of officers had an unfavorable view of Obama and about 44 percent have a favorable view.

How does it break down, according to branch?

Marines tended to view Obama least favorably – by 60 percent.

The Navy liked him, but not very much. He managed to scratch out a 43.4 percent approval rating.

According to the poll, 59 percent of troops believed drawing down troop levels in Iraq made the country less safe, 54 percent believed decreasing military operations in Afghanistan made the U.S. less safe, and 42 percent believe less emphasis on large-scale overseas missions make the country less safe.

Relying more on special forces and emphasizing training missions make the country more safe, according to the poll.

The sample size of the poll was 1,664 members of the military, with a margin of error being plus or minus 2 percent. It was conducted from December 16 to December 21.

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