Do you think this would be a legitimate question to ask the chimp?

at a news conference?

"Mr. Chimp"
"That's Mr. President"
"Yes...um, you say that the fight on Terror calls from sacrifice from all of us, yet among the younger generation of Bush's such as your nephews Pierce and George P., as well as your daughters Jenna and Barbara, none of them have volunteered for the armed services or even the National Guard. Yet they publicly have said they support your policies in Iraq. Don't you feel, as the commander in chief, that if the younger generation supports the initiative in Iraq they should show their support by enlisting in the armed services, which finds itself so drained these days?"

It's a question I would love to have him asked, but I doubt it ever would be.

But - we had a real press corps then.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln let his eldest son, Robert, volunteer for the Union Forces after he had completed college. He himself was a veteran of the Black Hawk War. US Grant was a general, as were all the Republican Presidents up to William McKinley; he saw service under fire as an enlisted man whose bravery was unqestioned. Let's not forget Teddy Roosevelt, who was a Colonel during the Spanish American War, and who encouraged his sons to join the military during WWI-Archie was killed over France; Teddy Jr. died in another war, on the shore at Normandy. Ike was a general, and even Nixon saw service in the Navy. Why, after this proud tradition of serving and having family members serve, do you choose to not encourage any of your family members to serve in the military? Could it be that you know they would be wasting their lives on an unjust war?

thanks for the addition. It was considered a "must" after the Civil War that the presidential candidate had been in uniform-the only person who was elected president during this time who was not was Grover Cleveland. His brothers had served, and he had stayed home to look after his widowed mother. He paid for a substitute, which was allowed; but anti-Cleveland propaganda considered him a coward. Personally, I don't consider anyone who personally hangs two murderers because his office as sheriff of Erie County demanded it a coward--he was a very responsible person, and very honest.