In 2004, military service was still considered by the vast majority of Americans to be honorable, as was service in the Iraq war. Bush did get re-elected.
It isn’t that military service has compelling value in presidential candidates to you, but rather, it is honorable work. He didn’t get out of Harvard Law and immediately go into politics. He served his country honorably, whether or not our leaders abused his honorable service.
1. In 2004, Bush came within 200,000+ votes of losing to one of the worst presidential candidates in my lifetime.
2. And by the time he left office, that retarded baboon was less popular than a child molester. His own brother couldn't scrub the stench of that wretched family name off him even eight years later.
3. Most relevant of all (from my personal perspective) was that I abandoned Bush and the entire GOP as soon as that moron ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003. I honestly don't give a sh!t about what "the vast majority of Americans" thought at the time.