The Troops Love Ron Paul (but Not That Much)
The story making the rounds is true: Ron Paul raised $22,140 from active duty or retired members of the military as declared on their donation forms. That was more than John McCain ($16,675), Mitt Romney ($4551) combined and only a little less than those two plus Rudy Giuliani ($2320). But those are the total dollar donations—not the number of donors, as Wonkette reported.
"The story on Wonkette is wrong," explained the Paul campaign's Jesse Benton. "We'd love to have 22,140 active military donors, but that's a lot of guys with five-figure salaries dipping into their wallets."
As to why Paul did so well: "We think that Ron is the strongest advocate of the military in the race: He supports bringing them home from foreign adventurism. We're very proud of our military support but we don't want to overstate it."