John McCain's campaign considers "Dungeons and Dragons Player" to be an insult needing no further explanation.
It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.
I totally get this. McCain is polling way ahead of Obama with older voters, and older voters are more likely to actually vote than younger voters. And most older voters may agree that D&D players are generally shiftless, lazy, basement-dwelling sociopaths. Of course, statistics don't bear this out. A 2004 survey at GenCon found that 70% of roleplayers had college degrees, and less than 10% had no higher education at all. 62% reported an annual income of more than $50,000. (The median per capita income in 2005 was $25,857.) But the McCain campaign is apparently banking on the assumption that people who were raising teenagers in the 80's still think of roleplaying gamers as godless, lazy slackers. The kind of people who don't take as gospel anything that comes out of the mouth of a one-time prisoner of war. Even if it's obviously plagiarized.
