海角大神

Ron Paul says it鈥檚 time to bring US troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. He thinks the US national security establishment is puffing up the threat from Iran鈥檚 nuclear program 鈥� possibly to involve the nation in another overseas conflict.

He鈥檚 opposed to the use of American armed forces in nation-building activities, and in general he thinks it鈥檚 time Uncle Sam stopped serving as the world鈥檚 policeman.

These positions put him at odds with the more hawkish members of the GOP presidential field. But here鈥檚 something interesting: according to the Paul campaign, he鈥檚 raised more money from current members of the armed forces than any other Republican hopeful.

鈥淚f you add up all the donations to all the other Republican candidates from military, active-duty people, I get twice as much because they鈥檙e sick and tired of these wars and they know they鈥檙e not working out,鈥� said Mr. Paul earlier this month during an appearance in Washington at the National Press Club.

Wow. Is this claim really true? Now that the Federal Election Commission has released 3rd quarter fundraising reports, we can check on it. Let鈥檚 go to the videotape, as the late great D.C. sportscaster George Michael used to say.

First off, we鈥檒l note that Paul is punching above his poll numbers, fundraising wise. According to the RealClearPolitics rolling average of major polls, , putting him in fifth place in the race for the nomination.

But in what pundits like to call the 鈥渕oney primary,鈥� Paul is third. , to Mitt Romney鈥檚 $32 million and Rick Perry鈥檚 $17 million.

And according to an analysis by the campaign finance watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics, the organization whose members have to Paul鈥檚 coffers is listed as the US Air Force. Members of the Army are second, and the Navy is third.

Mitt Romney鈥檚 top three, measured as the group whose members donated , are Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley. As you might imagine, this is a contrast that the Paul campaign is more than happy to publicize.

鈥淭his fundraising analysis confirms Americans鈥� beliefs about Ron Paul and their suspicions about Mitt Romney ... Romney relies almost exclusively on his big-business ties,鈥� said Paul campaign spokesman Jesse Benton in a statement.

Well, we鈥檝e got a couple of comments about this analysis. The first is that the methodology of the analysis is necessarily limited. Individual contributors to a presidential campaign are supposed to note their occupation, but they don鈥檛 always. Sometimes, they do include information, but it鈥檚 incomplete 鈥� an address say, or an acronym that laypeople can鈥檛 identify.

Forty percent of Paul鈥檚 contributions weren鈥檛 coded, and thus weren鈥檛 included in the Center for Responsive Politics survey. Thirty percent of Romney鈥檚 contributions similarly weren鈥檛 counted. It鈥檚 possible that a full accounting here would tell a different story. It鈥檚 also possible that it wouldn鈥檛.

Second, there鈥檚 no way around it: Romney got a boatload of cash from Wall Street. Members of his top five donating organizations 鈥� all financial firms 鈥� have pumped over a million bucks into his campaign so far.

While he may have received the most from donors who chose to identify themselves as serving in the military, Paul didn鈥檛 actually get that much from them, relatively speaking. If you add up his haul from the Air Force, Army, and Navy, it is something like $60,000, according to the CRP analysis. Compare that to his $12 million overall total.

So the real story may be that libertarian Paul gets money from people who work at so many different places that it doesn鈥檛 take much for the total from workers at one place to collectively place high in his money rankings. Got that?

We think this measure may be more indicative: 48 percent of Paul鈥檚 donations came in small increments from individuals, according to FEC date. Only ten percent of Romney鈥檚 money came in a similar way.