I find this very hard to believe. I can certainly see Paul having disproportionately high military support. But this sounds way out of whack. I need to see the numbers broken down. Maybe it’s a very small pool? Weird accounting? Or, maybe, it’s true:

So we now know that, measured in terms of financial support, Ron Paul, the one GOP candidate who actually backs individual liberty against government power, is now ahead of Huckabee, Brownback, Thompson (Tommy) and Tancredo. He’s the alternative to the Big Three. But guess who are among his strongest supporters? The U.S. military. Paul has a staggering 52.53 percent of all military contributions.

Update: According to this it’s not quite that high, but still very high and very impressive.

Rand Simberg suggests (see the comments section) that the sample size is so small that it’s hard to get a good read on the significance.

A couple Marine friends say they’re not surprised, but are skeptical that this reflects anything like a widespread military phenomenon and see it as more of a mirror of Paul’s internet popularity.

And then there’s this, from a reader:

Jonah, the original report is a month old, and has been corrected to a still impressive 49.5% for Paul. A couple of points, however. This is not necessary a measure of veteran support. The spin factor site notes “These statistics include the contributions of employees who recorded or indicated their military branch.” Employees may or may not be veterans or current members of the service branch. Also, the KC Star report also makes a leap not supported by the numbers. The blurb asks and answers rhetorically “But guess who are among his strongest supporters? The U.S. military.” Well, Paul raised just over $24,000 from military employees out of a total of $2.3 million in the quarter. That’s just about 1% of his total. I am sure that there are other segments that are much bigger and thus, by the money metric, much stronger supporters. Of course, the other GOP candidates raised an even smaller percentage of their totals this quarter, but I think the “strongest supporter” line does not hold up at all.