Oooh, I'd Totally Take Care of Our Veterans, Doncha Know? ;)

Very true - the cumulative effects of "the daily grind" in the military are a bitch, and the higher up you go in rank the more of a bitch it is. Sure as an E-4 you might bitch because you have to come in at 6:00 AM for useless bullshit classes that you didn't know about until a few hours earlier. But remember that NCO teaching the class had to come in at 4:30 AM just to set up the class so he could teach it. Oh and he was at a meeting until 7:00 PM the day prior getting a briefing about the class from his boss. The daily bullshit is so fucking stressful that we had a large percentage of people volunteering to go to actual "holy shit I'm getting ambushed & shot at daily" combat just so they could get the freedom to do their fucking jobs they spent years perfecting and get a good night's sleep. Not bitching, but civilians really can't even comprehend the pure, unadulterated soul-destroying bullshit military people deal with. We earn every fucking dime in benefits we get.

I'm saying if you haven't served you shouldn't be in charge of veteran's affairs, period. And factor in there are thousands of very well qualified vets who would do a great job - they will always have that little extra "skin in the game" civilians will never really have.

Statistically you are probably right given the raw numbers of veterans.

But keep in mind that just because someone has "skin in the game" doesn't mean they are a good manager or administrator which is a major function of the position.

Tell me, who'd you rather have on the Supreme Court, someone with a law background or the guy flipping burgers at the local McDonalds? Who do you want running the FDA? A doctor or somebody with a business degree? Who do you want running NASA? Robert Zubrin or Jill Stein?

Yes, an outsider can be better than someone who's never been a "player" in the field before, but those folks are the exception, rather than the rule. There certainly are people without a military background who could do a fine job at the VA, Sarah Palin isn't one of them, however. Not by a long shot.

Duckworth is not going to take that position so Rauner can name a republican in her place.