Ron Paul, Darling of the Web Military?

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Check out these numbers. Ron Paul has received more donations money from employees of the Armed Services than any other GOP candidate in the 2008 race. It’s really only a two-way race between the Libertarian Paul and the war hero McCain, who may have been hurt by the fact that he wants to keep servicemen and women in Iraq until everyone is dead, American, Iraqi, and otherwise.

Come to think of it, Ron Paul’s call for America to stop “policing the world” might have unique appeal to our country’s soldiers overseas. Anyway, here are the numbers.

Cand.: TOTAL [ARMY] [NAVY] [AF] [VETERAN]
Paul: 23,465 [6,975] [6,765] [4,650] [5,075]
McCain: 15,825 [6925] [6305] [1795] [800]
Romney: 3,551 [2,051] [0] [1500] [0]
Rudy: 2,320 [1,450] [370] [250] [250]
Hunter: 1000 [0] [1000] [0]
Huckabee: 750 [250] [0] [500]
Tancredo: 350 [350] [0] [0]
Brownback: 71 [71] [0] [0]
Thompson: 0 [0] [0] [0]

Now, from what I can gather, to be included in these stats a donor had to only put the words “Army,” “Navy,” “veteran,” or what have you in their “employer” field when submitting a contribution. So these aren’t the most exact numbers. But interesting nonetheless.

Also, looking at Ron Paul’s financial numbers reveals that the dude is only spending a tiny, tiny fraction of his cash. Most of his publicity seems to come from internet folks seeking to interview him, in an attempt to explain or perpetuate his demigod status on the web.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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