We are going to go out on a limb and predict that the military will vote Democrat over Republican this year by a ratio of about 1.2 to 1.  This prediction is based on demographics, historical military voter turnout, and the evident excitement about Barak Obama among black Americans.  If military blacks turnout to vote at rates seen in the past, at least 75% or so, then because they are over-represented within the military enlisted ranks as compared to the American general population, the military population is going to have a Democratic bias this year.

We have suspected for some time that the military vote was not as strongly Republican as generally assumed, but this election year will bring out the black and Hispanic military democratic vote like never before.  The demographics, combined with the suggestion by early data that there is a general shift by at least a third of the military leftward (less Republican, more Independent) will give the military a definite Democratic party identification, perhaps for the first time since the Vietnam War.