It's less to do with the indivisual and more to do with the Party. The Republican Party has long been viewed as the tool of the Defence Department and defence contradtors. As a generalisation, Defence D'ment budgets generally decline under Dem administrations and increase under Republicans. This seems to equate in the minds of some that means the Dems are weak on national security. Quanity doesn't necessarily equate to quality, as the national defence of my own nation proves. Australia has one of the smallest defence budgets (as a % of GDP) in the West, yet our armed forces are among the best equipped and well trained. There's a reason that Australian special forces are sent into hotspots in Iraq and Afghanistan to clear the way for US forces to follow. The major difference between the US and Australia in this respect is that we have almost zero of our own defence contractors that are forcing up the costs of budgets and as such have little-to-no influence in policy and defence strategy.