Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images - Elaine Brye, who is introducing Michelle Obama before her speech, stands at the podium with her husband, Courtney Bryne, during preparations for the Democratic National Convention.
CHARLOTTE — Elaine Brye is a military mom. Four of her five children are serving in the U.S. armed forces. Her father was a veteran of three wars, her husband an Air Force pilot who served in Vietnam. The couple moved to Kabul the year before President Obama’s election to help an Afghan airline improve its business.
In other words, Elaine Brye is the kind of speaker who used to be featured at Republican conventions.
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Her role here Tuesday night — introducing Michelle Obama, whose husband Brye supports — offered a stark illustration of the new place America’s wars occupy in the tight presidential race and the important role those who have been touched by the wars are playing in the campaign.
After decades of defining Republican presidential candidates and their nominating conventions, the nation’s wars were virtually invisible at last week’s GOP gathering in Tampa. Republican nominee Mitt Romney did not even mention the Afghanistan war in his acceptance speech, an omission that drew criticism from within his own party.
It is the traditionally antiwar Democrats who this year will be featuring the Afghanistan mission, the now-concluded war in Iraq, and the men and women who have fought in them. In addition to the president and the first lady, Vice President Biden and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) are expected to mention the Afghanistan war in speeches with a focus on foreign policy.
The Democrats’ approach is not free of risk, given that a large majority of Americans do not think the war in Afghanistan is worth fighting. And initial support for Obama’s 2009 troop surge in Afghanistan faded within a year, according to Washington Post polling.
Romney also maintains an advantage among veterans — the Republican leads Obama by 52 percent to 41 percent in households containing a veteran registered to vote, according to a Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll published last month.
Anthony H. Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it is difficult to talk about the war given its unpopularity, impending defense cuts by Congress and several recent pessimistic assessments of the war’s course.
“It certainly isn’t the good war anymore,” Cordesman said. “It certainly isn’t one you are going to want to spend more money and people on. So how do you discuss it?”
Obama and his party will emphasize during the convention his plan to end the war, rather than his decision early on in his term to escalate troop levels. He will celebrate his order to send in a Navy SEAL team to Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden — a success that his surrogates, led by Biden, have talked about on the campaign trail for some time. And Obama will take credit for ending the Iraq war. His opposition to that conflict helped define his candidacy four years ago.
Speakers this week will also talk about the health and well-being of the men and women who have fought in the nation’s recent wars.
At the Republican National Convention last week, these issues were largely ignored. Not only did Romney avoid talking about Afghanistan, but veterans issues, including their health and employment prospects, were hardly mentioned during the three-day event. The staggering economy was the convention’s primary topic.
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