There are hundreds of local, state, and national organizations representing veterans, but there are only four that really matter: the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and the newest, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). These organizations are the 400-pound gorillas of the veterans movement: they have the numbers, power, and money, and they know how to throw their weight around. So it is that candidates scramble for the veterans' vote by targeting this quartet, meeting with their local chapters, state conferences, and national conventions—like the VFW's recent confab in Kansas City where last Tuesday Donald Trump appeared to what he thought would be a raucous welcome.
It wasn't.
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