A reader asks, in response to my comment about McCain having a base among veterans in Maryland in Virginia, if veterans really are providing McCain with his margins of victory.

In South Carolina, 25 percent of Republican primary voters had served in the military. McCain garnered 36 percent, 29 percent for Huckabee, Romney 17, Thompson 14.

In Florida, 27 percent of Republican primary voters had served in the military. McCain took 42 percent of that vote, Romney 35 percent, Giuliani 12, Huckabee 7.

Looking at the Super Tuesday states, Missouri was one of McCain’s key wins, a winner-take-all state that he won by roughly 9,000 votes, or about one percent. In that state, 21 percent of the voters had served in the military. McCain won 39 percent of the vote, Romney 31, Huckabee 26. Oklahoma was another one where McCain won by only a few points, and there 22 percent of Republican primary voters had served in the military. Among those, it was McCain 42 percent, Huckabee 32 percent, 23 for Romney.

I haven’t been through the exit polls in every state, but I have yet to come across a state in which McCain competed where he didn’t carry veterans…