Barack Obama never served in the military, and neither did Joe Biden, but does that matter? Let's take a tour through history.
Of the Presidents who might be considered "great," Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan, only Roosevelt never put on a uniform. He did, however, serve as Secretary of the Navy.
Men who have never served tend to look at the world through rose colored glasses. Even Hillary recognizes the folly of promising to talk to every adversary as though talk alone will face them down.
Elbridge Gerry, a contemporary of George Washington who never served in the Continental Army wanted to insert a provision in the Constitution that limited the size of the standing army to 3000 men. Washington is said to have opined that that would be fine if the Constitution also limited the size of invasion forces to 3000 men.
While it would be unfair to ignore that some of the bottom tier of Presidents had served in the military, notably Grant and Carter, almost every President who lacked military experience ended up on the bottom half of the roster.
We had two draft dodgers as president. Grover Cleveland is remembered most for having served two non consecutive terms. Bill Clinton had character and integrity problems that got him impeached. The military preaches Duty, Honor, Country. Many believe that had Bill Clinton served as an officer with the attitudes that he took to the Presidency, he would not have emerged from the military with his reputation intact and might have left under the orders of a courts-martial.
Military service confers a special quality to those who serve, or it might be that those who serve already have that quality.
In any event, statistics don't lie. If Barack Obama is elected over John McCain, he is, on average, likely to be a bad or awful President. On the other hand, electing McCain because of his military service doesn't guarantee that he will be a great or even good President, but it does improve the odds that that will happen.
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