Ron Paul is the Military's Candidate? (analysis of campaign contribs) (vanity)

FEC Campaign Data at Open Secrets ^ | 2/21/2008 | self

[markomalley]

On a couple of other boards, I have heard the allegation that "Ron Paul is the Military's Candidate." I always figured it to be your typical overblown hyperbole...

So I decided to research the numbers, in order to blow away the conspiracy theory. There's no way that he could be the leading candidate for military contributors...right?

Well, I went to the FEC Contributions Database that is maintained by opensecrets.org...the numbers I came up with were both surprising and very, very disturbing.

First of all, the methodology:

• I did individual contributor searches for a number of different employer types: "Army," "US Army," "United States Army," "Air Force," "US Air Force," "USAF," etc.
• I did this search for candidates Paul, McCain, Romney, Clinton, Obama. I didn't do searches for Thompson, Hunter, etc. (So, in theory, one or more of the others could be recipients of huge quantities of military contributors, but I doubt it)
• I limited the search to the 2008 cycle.

What I found was that the Paul folks were right! Both the number of individual contributions (372) and the amount contributed ($167K), far outstripped the other candidates checked. In comparison, McCain only had 110 contributions for $50K.

The disturbing part of this was that the runner up to Ron Paul wasn't McCain, it was Obama (172 contributions for $77K)! That was a shock!

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Not bad, not bad at all, despite the both liberal media & conservative blogosphere that tried to cut him off at the knees.

All that and he's still a candidate?

[South40]

and most of the people that I hear mention Paul usually use the term crazy in the same sentence.

That's a shared opinion across this country.

[JSDude1]

I’d say the real reason why our military supports Paul is becuase they still have fresh on the memeory/consciences/spirits their oath to defend the US Constitution, and Ron Paul is the closest we have to a candidate that wants to honor our Constitution!

[markomalley]

I don’t know where the stats come from. I know a lot of officers that gave to Thompson and I don’t even see his name on the list, so go figure.

Fred Thompson, according to the FEC database, had 54 contributions totaling $25,400.

[jdm]

He got the zot.

[Texas Federalist]

I am happy about his success. I want a candidate like Paul to capture the politically motivated young voters and turn them on to limited government ideals at a young age. When they become adults, the idea of, say, abolishing the IRS does not seem radical to them because they fought for it in college.

[murphE]

Ron Paul on the issues : Veterans

[darkwing104]

Restoring health care coverage to retired service members and reducing their out-of-pocket costs.

I didn't know that I had it taken away?

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

Here's a clue, fellas:

You can lie when you tell the FEC who your employer is. They don't verify. You can donate money under the name Mickey Mouse and say you work for Crunchy Frog Industries.

True enough.

Paulestinians and Obamaniacs encourage people to claim that they are soldiers, sailors, marines, aviators, etc. It's good propaganda, that's all.

Conjecture. Of course it could also be correct numbers.

There is an entire subculture of leftists in this country who make their living by falsely claiming to war veterans.

Again, not one shred of evidence that those people have been counted as 'military', gave a penny to the Paul campaign, or any other campaign.

More conjecture, innuendo, and baseless attacks.

Of course for a pathological liar such as you have demonstrated yourself to be recently it shouldn't be difficult to manufacture statistics.

[rb22982]

Not surprising, most in the military I know are not happy with the way Iraq was handled till last year.

[wideawake]

That’s two jokes you haven’t gotten now.

[wideawake]

Considering you are one of the most vehement Paul haters, I would say he has more sanity and integrity in his little finger than you have in your entire body.

incindiary(sic)'s definition of integrity = taking cash from neo-Nazis.

[PeteB570]

“Our Military” does not support RP.

I live right in the middle of a big bunch of military - and civilians. You see any number of active and dropped candidates names on bumper stickers around here.

RP stickers are way far and few between.

There are a couple of guys driving around town with pickups that have big RP signs though.

[higgmeister]

He's outlasted Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Duncan Hunter, James Gilmore, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, Tommy Thompson, Sam Brownback....

You could have said the same about Harold Stassen.

[kinsman redeemer]

Ron Paul is the Military's Candidate?

He's STILL a candidate? He's still a nut.

[rb22982]

He didn't challenge the "globalist agenda," he showed himself to be a crackpot on matters of defense

Yep, he sounded just like Bush did running for President in 2000.

[kinsman redeemer]

... and “nut.”

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

The famous book Stolen Valor proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the fake veteran subculture exists.

And you really can write anything you want on an FEC form. Every election cycle sees donations made by foreign nationals claiming to be US citizens, such august individuals as Seymour Butts and Ben Dover making donations, etc.

Plenty of people make donations listing a different employer because they don't want their employer to know who they are contributing to: i.e. Jim Jones who works at Acme has a supervisor who is a gung-ho leftist and is afraid that if he donates as Jim Jones of Acme his boss will find out - so he donates as Jim Jones of Worldwide International instead.

Notice Mark that the poster offered no contrary evidence.

That there is a subculture of fake veterans isn't an issue, and wasn't your question.

The poster has no proof.

[incindiary]

That's a shared opinion across this country.

That's a big fat lie. From everything I've seen IRL and on lots of different websites, the only people who constantly call him that are the most gung-ho pro-Iraq war neoconservatives. Most other people like and respect him even if they disagree with his politics.

[rb22982]

I still find it humerous that so many ‘conservatives’ on this site jump up and down over Ron Paul’s foreign policy by calling him a traitor, etc yet do not even blink at the immigration policy by Bush, McCain, etc. This despite the fact that Ron Paul’s POV is just like Bush (and 95% of Republicans were) in 2000 about foreign policy and nation building.